One in three households with a disabled member are living in poverty due to low income and lack of support from the government, a new report showed Sunday.

According to statistics released by Korea Disabled People’s Development Institute, the poverty rate, earning less than 50 percent of the nation’s median income, for the disabled’ families stands at 34.5 percent. The poverty rate for the total population is 16.3 percent.

The figures mean that one out of three households with a disabled member are so poor that they cannot earn even half the median income in Korea. As of June 2014, the average income of disabled families was 2.23 million won, only 53.8 percent of that of the nation’s total households.

The household income for the disabled has gradually risen since 2000, but the disabled households still felt more concerned about their finances than the rest of the population, according to the latest report.

The disabled households additionally spent an average of 164,200 won to cover medical costs and pay their caregivers. They spent 40.2 percent of the money on medical fees, 15.6 percent on transport and the rest on purchasing assistance devices and so on.

The households with a disabled member felt greater financial problems mainly because the disabled are not able to contribute to family income as they are mostly unemplyed.

Only 39.6 percent of the disabled across the nation participated in economic activities as of 2014, according to the report. Only 37.0 percent of the total disabled population were employed, with 25.7 percent of them working in labor-intensive sector.

As of 2014, South Korea has a total of 2.49 million suffering from mental and physical disabilities registered with the municipalities. Among them, 58.1 percent were males and 41.9 percent females.

By Ock Hyun-ju (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)