A/70/297 likely to be employed than other persons with disabilities. 18 In OECD countries, the employment rate of persons with disabilities is on average 40 per cent lower than the overall level, while the unemployment rate is twice as high. 19 According to ILO, the economic loss related to the exclusion of persons with disabilities from the labour market in low- and middle-income countries is between 3 and 7 per cent of the gross domestic product. 20 27. Discrimination and stigma, unequal opportunities, and physical and attitudinal barriers are also causes for the social exclusion and poverty of persons with disabilities. Lack of education, in particular, has a significant impact on poverty in adulthood of persons with disabilities. As research shows, persons with disabilities with higher educational attainments have considerably higher employment and income rates. 21 Nonetheless, children and youth with disabilities are less likely to attend school or to be promoted in school, which affects their opportunities for future employment. 22 Furthermore, measures such as the arrest of homeless persons have a disproportionate impact on persons with psychosocial disabilities and may criminalize persons in need of support. 28. Poverty reduction programmes do not adequately include persons with disabilities. Research suggests that social protection programmes do not meet the needs of persons with disabilities. 23 For example, a recent study in two developing countries reveals that, despite the significant poverty gap between persons with disabilities and the general population, social protection programmes often do not specifically include persons with disabilities or respond to their specific needs. 24 This constitutes a missed opportunity, given that in the past decade most developing countries have implemented new poverty reduction programmes (including cash transfers and public employment schemes) that could have benefited persons with disabilities and supported their exit out of poverty. B. Disability-related extra costs 29. Persons with disabilities incur a range of common daily expenditures that persons without disabilities do not. They include extra costs for the person and the family to purchase goods and services, such as health care, transportation, assistive devices, personal assistance and house adaptation. On the one hand, some of these goods and services are entirely disability-related, such as mobility aids, appropriate and adapted devices and assistive technologies (including information and communications systems) and various forms of live assistance and intermediaries __________________ 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 10/25 B. Vick, K. Jones and S. Mitra, “Poverty and psychiatric diagnosis in the U.S.: evidence from the Medical Expenditure Panel survey”, in Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics, vol. 15 (2) (2012). OECD, Sickness, Disability and Work: Breaking the Barriers — a Synthesis of Findings across OECD Countries (2010). S. Buckup. OECD, “Sickness, disability and work: keeping on track in the economic downturn ” (2009). WHO and World Bank. ILO, World Social Protection Report 2014/15, Building Economic Recovery, Inclusive Development and Social Justice; UNICEF, The State of the World’s Children 2013, Children with Disabilities; D. Mont, “Social protection and disability”, in Poverty and Disability, T. Barron and J. M. Ncube, eds. (Leonard Cheshire Disability, London, 2010). See www.giz.de/expertise/html/16762.html. 15-12544