On the issue of economic cost of disability

The goal of our paper is to determine the extent of economic damage caused by the extent and rate of disability in Russia. The study is based on the analysis of the works of domestic and foreign authors, official documents of international organizations, and state statistics data. We propose a conceptual scheme revealing the system links between disabled population and other socio-economic problems. We prove that one of the crucial factors in reducing economic losses from disability is appropriate social policy that would stimulate the implementation of labor potential of disabled people. We give recommendations concerning the choice of priority indicators to be used in the implementation of programs to promote employment of disabled people and their professional rehabilitation. We consider the consequences of disability associated with declining public health and the economic losses it causes. We divide economic losses into two groups: the first one includes the expenditures on social support that is provided to the disabled and their families, the second one includes the expenditures associated with unemployment of the disabled. The losses in the form of underproduction of GDP by unemployed disabled people amounted to 11.3 trillion rubles in 2015. It is shown that part of the losses can be compensated by improving the system for promoting the employment of disabled people. We confirm the expediency of differentiation of social policy concerning disabled people depending on their age and state of health. Among the disabled, 39 percent are over 60 years of age. The number of disabled people of working age is greater among men. The age structure of the group of employed persons with disabilities and persons with disabilities who are not part of the labor force is shifted toward senior groups, while the distribution among the unemployed is more uniform. This feature indicates that the factor that hampers the employment of persons with disabilities is not their age, but their health and willingness to work in the conditions offered by employers. This conclusion is confirmed by the fact that the highest employment rate is registered among people with disability group 3 (25% among men and 19% among women) and also by a low prevalence of flexible forms of employment contract (in 2016, 88% of employed people with disabilities worked full time). The findings presented in our paper may be of interest to specialists conducting research on the impact of disability on economic development of territories, as well as to specialists in the field of social management. In the future, we are planning to study in more detail the impact of disability on economic development at the regional level.