MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th March, 2021) Over 11 percent of the European Union's citizens with disabilities bore a heavier housing cost burden, in 2019, compared with 9.1 residents who have no disability, Eurostat, the EU statistical agency, said on Wednesday.
Eurostat has published a report that revealed data on the housing cost burden for Europeans with disabilities. According to the report, housing costs include mandatory and rental payments, maintenance and taxes. The agency regarded housing costs as high if they exceeded 40 percent of disabled citizens' income.
"In most countries, people with disabilities live in households where housing costs place a heavier burden on disposable income ... In the EU-27, the housing overburden rate was 11.1 % for people with a disability compared with 9.1 % for those not having a disability," a report by Eurostat said.
The agency noted that the disabled citizens had to pay the lowest housing cost in Cyprus, while the highest housing cost overburden rate was registered in Greece.
"The housing cost overburden rate for people having a disability ranged from 1.5 % in Cyprus and 2.4 % in Malta, to over 20 % in Denmark and Bulgaria, and over 30 % in Greece," the report said.
The agency added that, in 2019, 69.5 percent of disabled citizens owned their own home and did not have to pay rental fees, stressing that people with disability were more likely to live in deprived areas, with 17.9 percent reported environmental problems and 13.6 percent faced crime in their neighborhoods.
According to the European Health and Social Integration Survey, 70 million EU citizens aged over 15 years had some sort of a disability, with 36.9 percent of them needed assistance.
