In regular circumstances, people with disabilities (PwD) are more likely to be poor, experience high health expenditures, and are more exposed to economic shocks. The COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused rapid deterioration in the economy, is showing more severe impacts PwD and further heighten these inequalities. In response to the pandemic, the government of Indonesia introduced a wide-range of COVID-19 social protection response programmes. However, limited support has been extended specifically to persons with disabilities. Analysing data from a nation-wide quantitative survey conducted in April 2020, this policy brief looks at how people with disabilities in Indonesia have been impacted by COVID-19, and to what extent they are reached and affected by the government’s social protection response programs.
The analysis found, among others, that up to 69 per cent of PwD respondents may have become poor or fallen deeper in poverty due to a combination of low baseline income and high income drop during the pandemic. Such income vulnerability is higher among women with disabilities, people with mental disability and those with multiple disabilities. The government’s COVID-19 social protection programmes are found to be pro-poor. However, overall coverage among PwD was still low, as, by April 2020, nearly half of vulnerable PwD were not accessing the main programmes. Through this analysis, the COVID-19 crisis has shown us the urgency of expanding specific social protection programmes for PwD, the need for a social welfare database of PwD beyond those in the poor category, and the need for more PwD engagement in the design, implementation and monitoring of social protection programmes.