Paper short abstract:

Social protection systems in LA have been defined as fragmented. After the reforms during the nineties poverty became a priory. Although disability is associate with poverty, disabled people have been ignore of the social protection strategies in LA.

Paper long abstract:

Disabled people are considered the poorest of the poor, are excluded from basic opportunities such as education, health and labour. The evolution of the social security and social protection systems in Latin America (LA) has been influenced by the macroeconomic and political context of the region. Before the neoliberal reforms during the eighties and nineties, the social insurance system was fragmented and only covered a small proportion of the population. After the neoliberal reforms, new strategies to reduce the risk of poverty were established in LA, those looked forward to prevent, mitigate or reduce poverty. To analyse how social protection policies cover disabled people and guarantee the access to social protection services of disabled people in LA, five countries with different structure and historical development of their social protection systems were selected (Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico) and a documentary analysis of 75 legal documents was done. A list of categories and codes were defined and three thematic networks were created (Disability, Social Protection and Equalization of Opportunities). The most important results are that although disability increases the risk of poverty in most of the countries, the strategies to reduce this risk are usually no-contributory pensions and a limited number of economic subsidies, which do not cover all disabled people and their families. The biggest benefits are still given in the contributory regime, which is associated with formal employment, which excludes disabled people.