The Socio-economic Situation of Disabled People in Poland

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(1)Zeszyty Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny w Krakowie Naukowe Metody analizy danych. 873 Kraków 2011. Sabina Augustyn. Department of Statistics. Paweł Ulman. Department of Statistics. The Socio-economic Situation of Disabled People in Poland 1. Introduction There can be no doubt that disability is a social problem in Poland, the EU, and throughout the world. This is confirmed by statistical research, the results of which will be presented in this paper. Coherent policy on disabled persons has appeared relatively recently in EU documents and activity. In the 1980s different resolutions and declarations were adopted in this field including the Resolution of the Council of the European Union from 1981 on the social integration of handicapped people at the community level, a 1986 European Commission Report on the employment of disabled people in the community, a 1990 Council Resolution on the integration of children and young people with disabilities into ordinary systems of education, and the Council Resolution Equal Opportunities for People with Disabilities: A European Action Plan (Gałęziak 2004, p. 3). The first EU document to present a general strategy to support disabled persons was a communication of the Commission from 1996 on equal opportunities for disabled people1, which presented a new Community goal on the issue of disability. In order to increase the level of 1 The Communication European Union New Strategy on Disabled Persons was followed (supported) by the Resolution of the Council and of the Representatives of the Governments of Member States (97/C12/01)..

(2) Sabina Augustyn, Paweł Ulman. 30. independence of the disabled and to increase their integration into society, the Community sought to recognise and eliminate all barriers that interfere with equal access to rights and full participation in all areas of life (Communication… 2008). Achieving this objective began with the introduction of new records into EU law. In article 13 of the Amsterdam Treaty from 19992, disability was for the first time directly discussed in terms of the need for anti-discrimination measures. The treaty became the basis for introducing, on the 27th of November 2000, a directive3 establishing ranges in the area of employment equality, which prohibited both direct and indirect discrimination by, for example, obliging employers to „reasonably adjust” workplaces to meet the needs of disabled persons (Council Directive 2000/78/WE… 2008, art. 5). To express the EU concern about full integration of the disabled, 2003 was established as the European Year of Disabled Persons, the main goal of which was to promote equal rights and the participation of disabled persons in social life. The year resulted in the introduction by the appropriate European institutions of numerous resolutions on the issue of disability. Subsequent years saw the implementation of several other programmes. The EU measures for the disabled were to combat discrimination, especially in employment, create a Europe without barriers, counteract social exclusion, enable education, and promote self-dependence, among others. Constitution of the Republic of Poland (from 1997), which contains the fundamental principles of the Polish legal system, established equality under the law and equality of treatment by the authorities. It also stated that „nobody shall be discriminated against in political, social or economic life for any reason” (Konstytucja RP 1997, art. 32). The basic legal act in force for disabled people in Poland is from August 27, 1997 on Occupational and Social Rehabilitation and Employment of People with Disabilities. In legal terms it defines a disabled person as “a person whose physical, mental or intellectual state permanently or periodically hampers, limits or prevents their fulfilling social roles and, in particular, professional work abilities” (The Act from August… 1997, art. 2). A certificate is issued an individual: ––is determined by an adjudicating body to have one of three degrees of disability (mild, moderate, severe), ––is totally or partially unfit to work (ruled on the basis of Pensions Act – Social Insurance Institution (ZUS)). A certificate is also issued for disability status to persons under 16. The Amsterdam Treaty was signed on October 2, 1997, and became binding on May 1, 1999.. 2. 2000/78/WE Directive establishing general framework conditions for equal treatment in employment and the workplace, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri= DD:05:04:32000L0078 :PL:PDF. 3.

(3) The Socio-economic Situation…. 31. The Act also defined the rights of disabled individuals, employer responsibilities and rights, and regulations for the functioning of supported employment enterprises and National Disabled Persons Rehabilitation Fund (PFRON). The legislature’s concern for the occupational rehabilitation of people with disabilities led to the creation of tools supporting the demand side of the labour market by transferring numerous rights to employers hiring disabled workers. There was also a prior legal act passed by the Polish Parliament entitled The Charter of Disabled Persons’ Rights (Karta praw…, 1997), which, in addition to defining disabled people’s right to an independent, self-reliant, active life free of discrimination, also introduced ten noteworthy rights in the area of life and functioning persons with disabilities in society. The objective of this paper is to look at the socio-economic situation of Polish households with disabled persons from 1999 to 2009. To widen the context, analogous groups of households without disabled persons have been selected for purposes of comparison. In order to compare the economic situation of examined groups of households, the average monthly income and expenses per person on the basis of individual household budget data in consecutive years have been calculated. Furthermore, the economic activity level of disabled persons in comparison to non-disabled people both in Poland and in other European countries has been considered. The low economic activity level of disabled persons may be the key reason for the worse financial situation of the households they belong to. While the situation is improving, it remains worse than in households where no one is disabled. Moreover, households with an unemployed disabled person find themselves more economically disadvantaged than households with an employed disabled person.. 2. Results of the Statistical Analysis According to the 2002 National Census, there were 5,456,711 disabled persons in Poland, 4,450,139 of whom were legally disabled4 and 4,315,045 of whom were 16 or older. When considering the results of the Population Economic Activity. 4 Persons legally disabled are those who possess an official and current certificate of disability or equivalent certification issued by a competent authority. Persons biologically disabled are those of a certain age whose basic abilities have been totally or seriously reduced. Naturally, there are people who are both legally and biologically disabled. For the needs of many statistical analyses, the legally disabled are also defined as those who can count on preferential treatment by various institutions and are subject to registration at the same time..

(4) Sabina Augustyn, Paweł Ulman. 32. Survey (BAEL) from 2002, the number of legally disabled who were 15 and older was 4,298,000 half-yearly5. After the 2002 National Census the next research providing information about the level and structure of disabled persons in Poland was the National Health Survey from 2004. According to NHS results, the number of disabled people in Poland increased to approximately 6.2 million, 4.8 million of whom were legally disabled (Stan zdrowia… 2006, p. 49). This increase was not confirmed by the BAEL data, according to which in 2004 there was 4,167,000 legally disabled individuals 15 or older. In order to distribute funds to the voivodships, PFRON estimated the number of legally disabled in 2007 at 4,554,528. It is evident that some discrepancy is present when comparing sundry survey results. Yet it should be borne in mind that those results come from different statistical surveys carried out with various research objectives, which can have effects in different research organisations and ultimately incomparable results. Information on those households with disabled individuals can also be obtained from Household Budgets Survey since 1999, the first year data for legally disabled members of households was registered. Table 1 presents basic information about households with disabled persons for the period 1999–2009. The disabled persons6 ratio in Polish society, based on individual household budget data, shows a permanent downward trend ranging from more than 12% to a bit more than 9% in 2009. The decrease was even stronger for the households with at least one disabled member ratio. It ultimately exceeded 24%, of which more than 18 percentage points apply to the households with one disabled person. Despite the declining trend, the scale of disability is still large. Nearly every fourth household has that problem. Table 2 presents the structure of disabled individuals by level of disability. The last column of table 2 contains the share of the disabled aged 15 or less. In consecutive years of the examined period the ratio of those with severe disabilities increased while the ratio of people at the mild level of disability decreased the most. The share of disabled children was approximately 5% for most of the time. This may in part be attributable to the the criteria for certificating disability level being tightened up and also to society getting older. Tightening the criteria causes the share of legally disabled to decrease and a relative decline in the share of mildly disabled persons, which directly leads to an increased share in the level of persons with severe disability (evident disability). Also, the simple fact of society growing older also increases the ratio of the severely disabled. The Research on the Economic Activity of the Population involves people aged 15 and over, while the certification of disability status concerns people 16 and over. This simply leads to the conclusion that data from both sources is not entirely comparable. 5. Note: only the legally disabled are considered; see footnote 4 for definition of disabled.. 6.

(5) The Socio-economic Situation…. 33. Table 1. Disabled Persons and the Ratio of Households with Disabled Persons (%) Year. Disabled persons ratio. 1999. 12.27. 2001. 12.03. 2003. 10.70. 2000 2002 2004 2005. 2006 2007. 2008. 2009. Ratio of households with disabled persons. with at least 1 disabled person. with 1 disabled with 2 disabled person persons. 30.72. 24.03. 12.11. 30.64. 24.50. 11.31. 29.69. 22.83. 25.95. 21.56. 10.86. 31.14. 25.60. 9.69. 23.34. 9.07. 21.91. 10.16 9.34. 6.03. 23.42. 27.63. 10.64. 6.17. 6.79. 6.12. 22.37. 4.85. 21.42. 3.85. with 3 disabled persons and more 0.52. 0.56 0.93 0.74. 0.41. 4.01. 0.38 0.31. 24.31. 20.48. 3.54. 0.37. 22.41. 18.82. 3.26. 0.33. 19.66. 3.36. 18.51. 3.13. 0.32. 0.27. Source: the authors, based on individual household budget data.. Table 2. The Severity of Disabled Persons (%) Year. The ratio of disabled persons aged 16 or more at the level of disability mild. The ratio of disabled persons aged 15 and under. 36.33. 7.11. severe. moderate. 2000. 18.50. 38.06. 2002. 19.92. 36.78. 36.27. 21.36. 36.97. 36.17. 5.50. 2006. 23.09. 37.57. 33.97. 5.37. 2008. 24.37. 38.88. 1999. 2001. 18.42. 18.99. 2003. 21.50. 2005. 21.91. 2004. 2007. 2009. 23.65 25.79. 39.15. 35.61. 37.08. 36.45. 5.98. 36.74. 8.66. 36.14. 37.38. 35.07. 37.31. 33.83. 37.73. 30.94. 31.42. 7.04. 5.28. 5.64 5.21. 5.33. 5.54. Source: the authors, individual data of household budgets.. The data presented in Table 2 are confirmed by those in Table 3, which presents the age structure of disabled persons. The first age class relates to persons.

(6) Sabina Augustyn, Paweł Ulman. 34. (children) 15 and under. To be considered legally active on the labour market, one must be at least 157. Table 3. The Age Structure of Disabled Persons (%) Year. The share of disabled persons at age class: 15 or less. 1999. 5.56. 2001. 7.79. 2000. 6.70. 2002. 6.30. 2004. 4.95. 2003. 2005. 2006. 4.64 5.10. 5.52. 2007. 5.30. 2009. 5.51. 2008. 5.29. total. 70.53. 68.95. 15 to 64. 15 to 40. 41 to 64. 9.55. 59.40. 10.42. 56.97. 11.06. 55.62. 9.44. 67.20. 10.20. 67.56. 10.07. 67.06. 11.45. 67.39. 66.68 67.21. 12.50. 67.20. 13.06. 67.63. 66.70. 61.09. 57.00. 65 and more 23.91. 24.35 25.01. 26.31. 57.49. 26.80. 55.61. 27.84. 54.71. 28.37 27.27. 12.77. 54.86. 27.07. 13.29. 53.41. 27.79. 54.14. 27.51. Source: the authors, based on individual household budget data.. In the initial years of the examined period the ratio of disabled children (aged 15 or less) decreased to the level of ca. 5% while the ratio of older persons, especially the oldest age group, increased. 95% of disabled individuals belong to the economically active group (potentially) while about 70% of disabled persons are of working age8. The fact that more than 70% of disabled persons are those with a mild or moderate level of disability leads to the conclusion that there is a considerable group of individuals with the potential to be active. Table 4 presents the economic situation of households with at least one disabled person in comparison to households with no disabled members. The data presented in the table is based on total income average, average total expenses and the share of food expenses to total expenses9. The age class discrepancy between BAEL data and disability certification rules is presented. See footnote 5. 7. The distinction is somewhat confusing as the Central Statistical Office (GUS) usually defines the working age as 18–64 for men and 18–59 for women. 8. 9 The share of food expenses to total expenses is used as a household wealth measure and suggests that the greater the affluence (prosperity, economic situation, material status) the lower that share will be (Podolec, Ulman & Wałęga 2008, p. 121; Statystyka… 2007, p. 266)..

(7) The Socio-economic Situation…. 35. Table 4. Total Average Income and Expenses per Person (in prices for 2006, PLN) and the Ratio of Food Expenses to Total Expenses (%) Year 1999. 2000. Households with disabled persons. income. expenses. 632.18. 615.69. 615.20. 651.21. 2001. 638.22. 2003. 648.96. 2005. 679.94. 2002 2004a 2006 2007. 2008. 2009. 657.14. 618.08. 607.21 617.29. income. expenses. 34.59. 740.73. 703.30. 30.43. 31.89. 739.17. 696.87. 28.65. 791.92. 746.66. 27.04. 874.47. 775.03. 26.28. 881.60. 24.68. 35.28 33.59. 742.11. 737.58. 756.96. 621.96. 31.02. 800.84. 680.17. 30.07. 739.75. 28.54. 633.68. 717.29. 655.65. 830.56. 730.73. 840.64. Households without disabled persons. 31.42. 666.72. 775.79. ratio. 31.41. 30.11. 29.09. 700.47. 696.23 714.84. 724.01. 947.93. 825.39. 1057.29. 902.25. 1023.62. ratio. 31.16. 29.91. 27.22. 27.23 25.74. 24.27. a) in 2004 the Central Statistical Office (GUS) introduced new weights calculated on the 2002 National Census which influenced the estimates of average income and expenses. The change to the weighting system does not influence the results of the ratio of food expenses to total expenses.. Source: the authors, based on individual household budget data.. There is no doubt that the economic situation of households from both categories has improved, especially in recent years. The increase in both average income and expenses and also the decrease in the share of food expenses to total expenses bear this out. Yet a comparison of the households with disabled persons and those without illustrates the lower economic situation of the former. Moreover, the comparison of tendencies of those measures does not confirm a relative improvement in the situation of households with disabled individuals with reference to ones without. A comparison of the share of average income (and average expenses as well) of households with the disabled in the average income (expenses) of other households shows that the economic situation of the first group is worse than that of the second group. For example, the share in 1999 was about 88% while by 2009 it had falled to about 80% (87% and 82% for expenses, respectively). To extend the analysis, three types of households were considered according to household type both with disabled and non-disabled members: childless couples, couples with children to support, and single persons. The average monthly income per person for different types of households is presented in Table 5..

(8) Sabina Augustyn, Paweł Ulman. 36. Table 5. Total Average Monthly Income per Person (in prices for 2006, PLN) for Different Household Types Year. Households with disabled persons A. B. 1999b. 983.86. 542.63. 2001. 925.28. 528.05. 2003. 969.28. 2005. 963.62. 2000. b. 2002 2004. c. 2006. 893.35 959.78. 968.18. 1012.69. 516.63. 528.64. Households without disabled persons. type of householda C –. –. 947.34. 966.21. A. B. 1137.09. 652.35. 1140.83. 654.69. 1124.90 1187.22. 677.57. 1260.97. 756.10. 1378.87. 548.74. 1018.23. 1228.58. 688.59. 583.94. 1021.65. 1225.77 1313.57. 667.39. 2007. 1044.88. 622.63. 1047.40. 1376.46. 842.35. 2009. 1150.96. 675.46. 1179.48. 1539.22. 939.69. 2008. 1146.84. 672.42. 1129.81. 1463.88. –. 1213.46. 1240.25. 1001.59 999.70. –. 646.87. 525.42 528.41. 1225.16. 661.56. C. 917.56. 1255.37. 1284.68 1421.37 1497.18. 1557.35. a) A – childless couple; B – couple with children; C – single person; b) until 2000 single persons were not considered as a unique household type; c) see note to Table 4.. Source: the authors, based on individual data of household budgets.. The improving situation of each type of household during the consecutive years can be observed on the basis of the data presented in Table 5, which shows the households with disabled persons have lower income. A comparison of the appropriate data from 2009 shows that childless couple households with a disabled person achieved ca. 75% of the income childless households without disabled persons do. For the couples with children, the income ratio is ca. 72% and for single persons ca. 76%. The analysis shows that arranging more homogeneous groups of households and comparing the income situation of households with and without disabled members reveals even deeper inequalities in their economic condition. This is due to the fact that in calculating in similar fashion the income ratio on the basis of the data shown in Table 4 it becomes evident that households with at least one disabled member acquire 80% of the income of households with non-disabled persons. One of the reasons for the worse situation of households with disabled persons is the low economic activity of those persons, a fact confirmed by the annual average data presented in Table 6..

(9) The Socio-economic Situation…. 37. Table 6. The Evaluation of Basic Economic Activity Indicators of Disabled and Non‑disabled Individuals, 1999–2006 (%) Year 1999. 2000. Disabled persons. indicator. working. inactive. 15.8. 80.8. 16.5. 2001. 15.3. 2003. 13.7. 2002. 81.5. 17.4. 83.5. 16.8. 48.7. 83.8. 19.3. 50.0. 12.9. 53.4. 2004. 13.1. 83.8. 2006. 12.6. 2008. 13.7. 2007. 2009. 13.2. 13.8. working. 16.3. 82.0. 13.1. unemployment rate. 80.3. 14.8. 2005. Healthy persons. indicator. 85.0. 84.9. 84.4. 84.3. 17.7. 17.9. 19.6. 15.8. 12.3 12.1. 54.3 52.7 51.0. inactive. unemployment rate. 36.9. 13.8. 37.5. 18.3. 37.3. 16.0. 49.1. 38.6. 20.0. 49.2. 39.3. 18.9. 51.2. 40.6. 13.8. 55.3. 40.6. 6.9. 55.0. 39.3. 39.3 41.0. 40.2. 19.8 17.7 9.5. 8.0. Source: the authors, based on BAEL (GUS); http://www.niepelnosprawni.gov.pl/tablice/bael, October 2010.. It was to be expected that the economic activity of disabled persons would be lower compared to that of those without a disability but the difference is very large. In 2009 only 15.7% of disabled persons were professionally active and 13.8% worked. Another important problem was the decreasing economic activity of disabled persons, although since 2007 the slight increase in the economic activity ratio of disabled persons can be seen. Among EU countries, the activity of Polish disabled persons is among the lowest. Table 7 presents the employment ratio for several European countries separately as well as for the EU-15 in 2002. In 2002 the highest employment ratio for disabled people was in Sweden, where not only 74.2% worked, but that percentage was even higher than the employment ratio for non-disabled people (69.6%). This may be due to effective government policy. The smallest differences between the percentage of employed people with and without disabilities was for France, Finland and Estonia, respectively, while the largest difference between the share of working people from those two groups was in Hungary, Lithuania, Slovakia, Poland and Romania; clearly this is a problem for post-communist countries..

(10) Sabina Augustyn, Paweł Ulman. 38. Table 7. Employment Ratio of People with and without a Disability, 2002 (%) Country EU-15. Disabled persons ratio 52.1. Sweden. 74.2. Netherlands. 58.0. Finland. Persons without disabilities ratio 65.0 69.6. 59.7. 70.2. France. 56.0. 64.6. United Kingdom. 54.6. 72.9. Portugal. Denmark Austria. 55.2. 52.8. 50.8. 74.5. 70.0 77.0 69.1. Estonia. 48.8. 63.3. Norway. 48.3. 78.2. Cyprus. 47.8. 70.2. 43.3. 66.5. Ireland. 40.5. 66.5. Greece. 36.5. Spain. 28.5. Lithuania. 21.0. Luxembourg (Grand-Duché) Czech Republic Slovenia. Germany Belgium Italy. Malta. Romania Poland. Slovakia. Hungary. 48.8 47.9. 47.5. 42.6 37.5. 64.7. 66.7. 65.3 60.7 56.7 57.8. 32.3. 56.1. 26.2. 60.1. 19.7. 19.0 11.5. 59.4. 62.0 56.1 57.8. 57.2. Source: LFS (GUS), http://www.stat.gov.pl/bdr_n/app/dane_podgrup.katgrupg?p_dane=0&p_kate =4, April 2009; Eurostat, http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/employment_unemployment_lfs/data/database#, April 2009.. The situation improved for some countries: In Austria, 54% of disabled individuals worked in year 2006, while in Slovakia 42% had work in 2005. In Ireland and Sweden, almost the same level of economic activity was registered (Shima, Zólyomi & Zaidi 2008, p. 4)..

(11) The Socio-economic Situation…. 39. Again, the worse financial situation of households with disabled persons is the result of their lower economic activity. Table 8 shows the average income and expenses and food expense ratio in the years 1999–2009 for households: with working disabled individuals and with unemployed disabled ones. Table 8. The Average Total Income and Expenses (in prices for 2006, PLN) and Food Expense Ratio to Total Expenses (%) for Households with Disabled Persons Year. Households with one working disabled person. ratio. income. expenses. 636.83. 34.26. 481.12. 560.97. 693.54. 656.04. 31.31. 469.36. 444.52. 2004a. 684.34. 650.20. 31.73. 448.39. 437.30. 2006. 774.15. 714.89. 28.68. 518.67. 1999. 2000 2001. 2002 2003. 2005. 2007. 2008. 2009. income. expenses. 659.92. Households with one unemployed disabled person. 662.69. 656.48 667.55 715.18. 871.35. 903.23. 890.24. 617.42. 628.43. 35.84 33.70. 633.87. 31.30. 666.76. 30.40. 729.91. 772.30. 806.23. 29.10. 28.16 27.12. 498.48 465.67 465.12. 501.34. ratio. 547.85. 38.24b. 465.99. 34.13b. 440.72. 36.52b 36.42 33.63. 35.06. 477.94. 32.03. 511.16. 494.25. 32.85. 652.67. 585.67. 31.99. 625.14. 494.28. 605.66. 33.08 28.74. a) in 2004 the Central Statistical Office (GUS) introduced new weights calculated on the 2002 National Census which influenced the estimates of average income and expenses. The change to the weighting system does not influence the results of the ratio of food expenses to total expenses; b) as expenses are higher than income the numbers are calculated as a ratio of expenses to total income.. Source: the authors, based on individual household budget data.. The financial status of households in which a disabled resident works is definitely better than that of households with an unemployed disabled person and slightly better than that of households with a disabled person in general (see Table 4). The willingness of disabled persons to work is strongly determined by their households difficult material situation as taking up a job obviously improves the situation significantly.. 3. Conclusions The economic situation of disabled persons and households with disabled persons in Poland may for very objective reasons be considered to be sub-standard. Poland’s UE accession brought hopes for disabled person seeking to improve the.

(12) 40. Sabina Augustyn, Paweł Ulman. quality of their lives not only by simple increasing financial contributions but above all by eliminating institutional and legal barriers. Such a turn would enable those individuals to participate in social life and, most importantly, to become financially independent by working when their health allows it. As statistical data have shown, the economic activity of disabled individuals has decreased, particularly the ratio of working disabled persons, which correlates to the decrease in numbers of supported employment enterprises in the examined period. In 1999, there were 3,736 supported employment enterprises employing more than 218,000 disabled persons while at the end of 2009 the numbers had fallen to 2,038 workplaces employing 194,000 disabled persons10. The supported employment enterprises were intended to provide the disabled the opportunity to work on the basis of particular powers and facilities. The gradual decline in those enterprises is correlated to the falling attractiveness of running those businesses. The perspectives for sheltered workshop are not good in Poland and the EU on the basis of legal acts being introduced (Firmom nie opłaca się… 2008). Hopefully the decrease in the number of supported employment enterprises will be followed by the disabled becoming more competitive on the open labour market. It seems that without government support, however, most will face worse conditions, hence weakening their chances of engaging in professional activity, with the consequences being not only economic but psychological and social as well. The results of the analysis and the conclusions drawn in this paper may contribute to creating social policy to improve the condition of households with disabled persons and improve their situation on the labour market in Poland. The authors furthermore hope the results of representative research of household budgets will strengthen the voice of those who care if persons with disabilities are able to live dignified lives. Bibliography Communication of the Commission on Equality Opportunity for People with Disabilities, http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/soc-prot/disable/com406, July 8, 2008. Council Directive 2000/78/WE from November 27, 2000, establishing general rules in the area of equality of employment and work, http://www.opc.uj.edu.pl/poradnik/links/ pdf/Dyrektywa_Rady_2000_78_ WE.pdf, July 8, 2008. Firmom nie opłaca się już praca niepełnosprawnych (2008) [The employment of disabled is no longer profitable], “Gazeta Prawna”, No 113, June 11.. Data from the website: http://www.niepelnosprawni.gov.pl/tablice/dane-od-wojewodow-ozpch/ October 2010. 10.

(13) The Socio-economic Situation…. 41. Gałęziak J. (2004), Osoby niepełnosprawne na rynkach pracy krajów Unii Europejskiej [Disabled people on the labour market in EU Contries], Urząd Komitetu Integracji Europejskiej, Warszawa. Stan zdrowia ludności Polski w 2004 r. (2006) [Health condition of Polish society in 2004], GUS, Warszawa. Podolec B., Ulman P., Wałęga A. (2008), Aktywność ekonomiczna a sytuacja materialna gospodarstw domowych [Economic activity and financial situation of households], Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Ekonomicznego w Krakowie, Kraków. Shima I., Zólyomi E., Zaidi A. (2008), The Labour Market Situation of People with Disabilities in EU25, “Policy Brief” February 1, European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research. Karta praw osób niepełnosprawnych (1997) [The charter of disabled persons’ rights], Official Journal of the Republic of Poland (Monitor Polski) from 1997 No 50, Pos. 475. Statystyka społeczna (2007) [Social statistics], red. T. Panek, PWE, Warszawa. Konstytucja RP (1997) [The Constitution of the Republic of Poland], adopted on April 2, 1997, Journal of Laws No 78, Pos. 483. Ustawa z dnia 27 sierpnia 1997 r. o rehabilitacji zawodowej i społecznej oraz zatrudnieniu osób niepełnosprawnych (1997) [The Act from August 27, 1997 on occupational and social rehabilitation and employment of people with disabilities], Journal of Laws from 1997 No 123, Pos. 776 as amended.. Społeczno-ekonomiczna sytuacja osób niepełnosprawnych w Polsce Dane statystyczne pokazują, że problem niepełnosprawności ma szeroki wymiar społeczny w Polsce. Wymaga on znacznej uwagi nie tylko odpowiednich organizacji, ale i współpracy wielu państwowych instytucji. Poprawy sytuacji osób niepełnosprawnych oczekiwano po wejściu Polski do Unii Europejskiej w 2005 r. Unia Europejska koordynuje bowiem, a nawet wymusza na państwach członkowskich ustanawianie antydyskryminacyjnego prawa oraz zapewnienia równych warunków życia dla wszystkich obywateli i grup społecznych. W trosce o równe możliwości dla wszystkich ludzi Unia Europejska kładzie nacisk na eliminację w społeczeństwie i na rynku pracy różnych przeszkód, jakich doświadczają osoby niepełnosprawne. Celem niniejszego artykułu jest analiza sytuacji społeczno-ekonomicznej polskich gospodarstw z osobami niepełnosprawnymi w odniesieniu do pozostałych gospodarstw w latach 1999–2009. Wyniki analizy pokazują, że różnice pomiędzy tymi grupami społecznymi nie tylko nie zmniejszają się, ale mają niewielką tendencję wzrostową..

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