Work-Related Disability, Veteran Status, and Poverty: Implications for Family Well-Being

We examine the interrelationships between work-related disability, veteran, and poverty statuses using data from the 1992-2004 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation. We find that households with non-disabled veterans present have a lower likelihood of poverty, but that advantage is severely eroded when the veteran or another family member has a work-limiting disability. Nevertheless, all veteran households have substantially lower odds of poverty than disabled nonveteran households, which have the highest poverty rate (32.53%). Veteran and disability statuses interact at the household level in ways that contribute to substantial variability in household-level poverty, which has implications for all household members.