88% of households with a disabled family member are in debt. To make matters worse, the loans are intended to be used to purchase food, medication, medical treatments and health emergencies.
Added to this is emotional decline, which is also at the heart of the problem: 87% of respondents report symptoms of anxiety, distress, insomnia or physical stress, a pattern repeated in the stories heard during the meeting. The data comes from the report “Disability and Debt – Federal Survey 2025,” which was presented this week at the federal conference on debt reduction policy.
The report shows that the majority of respondents are women, heads of households and carers, who are often the sole economic breadwinners in contexts of increasing fragility. “Income is insufficient to cover basic needs and, faced with the loss of services, therapies and social benefits, debt becomes the only available strategy to maintain daily life,” the statement said.
With 214 responses from 16 provinces and CABA, the study shows how adaptation, disenfranchisement and indebtedness combine in a deeply feminized and overburdened sector. It also provides a detailed overview of how the economic crisis is affecting households living with disabilities.
The meeting also highlighted another problem that affects all indebted families as a whole: the abusive practices of the financial system. Throughout the day we heard testimonies from households living in great hardship and economic hardship, plagued by illegal collections, threats, telephone pressure and harassment mechanisms that even reach into the family environment.
In this context, sociologist Luci Cavallero warned: “The worst thing is that various financial institutions operate according to the same usury logic as private lenders. In the face of excessive indebtedness, they do not offer any relief, but rather exacerbate the suffocation.”
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