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Equal Social Participation for All? Measuring the Adequacy of Cash Support for Children with Disabilities in Belgium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2026

Julie Vinck Open the ORCID record for Julie Vinck [Opens in a new window] ,
Eef Gijbels  and
Wim Van Lancker
Julie Vinck*
Affiliation:
ReSPOND, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Eef Gijbels
Affiliation:
ReSPOND, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Wim Van Lancker
Affiliation:
ReSPOND, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
*
Corresponding author: Julie Vinck; Email: julie.vinck@kuleuven.be
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Abstract

Previous research has shown that childhood disability incurs higher costs. Welfare state cash support is crucial to guarantee adequate social participation for families of children with disabilities. To properly assess the adequacy of cash support, the needs-based costs of childhood disability must be accounted for. This article investigates the adequacy of a cash support system that is designed to increase with the severity of the child’s care needs for four hypothetical children with different types of care needs. Therefore, we build on recently developed reference budgets for adequate social participation for families with disabled children in Belgium. The results show that Belgian cash support is generally insufficient to enable equal social participation for these families, particularly for children with less-visible disabilities. This forces families to make choices about which costs are met by the support measures and which costs are borne by themselves.

Keywords

adequacychildhood disabilityneeds-based costsreference budgetswelfare state generosity

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Article
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Social Policy and Society , First View , pp. 1 - 14
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press in association with Social Policy Association

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