How tax money benefits the disabled

Tax is a powerful tool that provides revenue which funds basic public services for disabled.

More than 120 million people in the European Union have some form of disability. EU Member States are committed to improving the lives of those with disabilities and have spent billions of euros on social protection expenditure for disability benefits, which taxes help fund.

How Member States help

All EU Member States provide financial and other provisions, in the form of benefits, to those with a disability. The EU Member States spent over 280 billion EUR of social protection expenditure on disability benefits in 2014, according to data published by Eurostat. This represented 7.3 % of the total spent on social benefits, a rate almost equivalent to that spent on survivor's benefits (5.7 %) and family benefits (8.6 %).

Eurostat also noted that the share of total social benefits spent on disability benefits varied significantly between EU Member States. It accounted for more than 10 % of total social benefits in Denmark (12.9 %), Croatia (12.2 %), Sweden (12.0 %), Estonia (11.8 %), Luxembourg (11.4 %) and Finland (10.9 %), but for less than 4 % in Cyprus (3.2 %) and Malta (3.7 %), followed by Italy (5.9 %), Ireland and the United Kingdom (both 6.0 %).

In Italy, for example, there are close to three million disabled people who are unable to perform necessary day-to-day tasks independently. Only those aged between 18 and 65 are entitled to disability payments each month.  In Sweden, the disability benefits are an important part of the country’s social security system, providing financial protection to approximately 1.5 million people with a disability making it the largest expenditure for this agency.

In Germany, there are approximately 7.6 million people who live with severe disabilities. Meeting certain conditions, they are eligible for disability benefits. In 2016, the German Parliament passed a comprehensive reform legislation to expand the rights of disabled people. This has helped make the application process for disability benefits simpler. In France, disability affects approximately 12 million people. Under the French government’s comprehensive inter-ministerial policy, disabled allowances increased per month to try and improve the lives of these individuals.

Teaching the importance of tax

So, can taxes help support persons with disabilities? Yes, they can!

Teaching younger learners about tax may seem like a heavy and unexciting activity for the classroom. However, the TAXEDU digital portal is making tax education both easy and fun. Taking real-world examples about how tax benefits public services, teachers and students can dig deep into TAXEDU’s interactive and fun materials.

These are available at the site’s teaching catalogue that will ensure tax lessons come to life. More importantly, learners develop an understanding of how the real world works, and how people such as those living with a disability can also live a better life thanks to the taxes we pay.