"Low-income single mothers with disabled children . . . have a work participation rate that is only slightly lower than the rate among other single mothers who do not have any disabled children. Yet very few of these mothers receive [Supplemental Security Income] (SSI) benefits . . . and less than one-third receive [Temporary Assistance to Needy Families] (TANF)," state the authors of a June 2002 research brief published by the Institute for Women's Policy Research. This brief presents data on the prevalence of disabilities among low-income families with children under age 18. The authors also discuss how disabilities in these families are related to mothers' work participation and receipt of government assistance.

Findings in the brief are based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau's 1996 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), collected from July 1997 to October 1997 (wave 5). Wave 5 of the 1996 SIPP provides detailed information on a child's ability to perform age-appropriate functions and on an adult's ability to perform a number of activities, including work-related ones. This wave also provides general demographic, employment, income, and program participation information.

According to the SIPP data collected in 1997

• Compared with higher-income families, low-income families are almost 50% more likely to have a disabled child;
  
  
• Compared with higher-income single-mothers, low-income single mothers are more likely to be disabled (29% vs. 17%) and have considerably higher rates of severe disability (17% vs. 5%);
  
  
• Close to half of single-mother families receiving TANF have at least one disabled child or a disabled mother;
  
  
• Only about one-fourth of low-income, disabled, single mothers, whether or not they have a disabled child, worked all weeks during the 4 months prior to the survey, while about half did not work at all during that period;
  
  
• Only a small proportion of low-income single-mother families with disabled mothers or children received SSI benefits during the 4-month period prior to the survey; and
  
  
• Low-income single-mother families with disabled mothers are more likely to receive TANF than low-income single-mother families with only disabled children.

The authors suggest that "it will be critical to increase the supply of childcare for children with special needs." They also suggest that "there is a need for careful assessment of disability status among mothers and children in low-income families when they apply for benefits or approach time limits given their vulnerability to severe poverty without adequate supports from the welfare or SSI programs."

Lee S, Sills M, Oh G. 2002. Disabilities among children and mothers in low-income families. Research-in-Brief. Washington, DC: Institute for Women's Policy Research. Available at www.iwpr.org/pdf/d449.pdf.