The debate about extending working lives in response to population ageing often overlooks the lack of employment opportunity for older adults with disabilities. Without work, their living standards depend heavily on government transfers. This study contributes to the literature on health inequalities by analysing the sources of income and poverty outcomes for people aged 50 to 64 in two liberal democratic countries yet with contrasting disability benefit contexts – Canada and the United Kingdom. This choice of countries offers the opportunity to assess whether the design of benefit systems has led the most disadvantaged groups to fare differently between countries. Overall, disabled older persons without work faced a markedly higher risk of poverty in Canada than in the UK. Public transfers played a much greater role in the UK, accounting for two-thirds of household income among low-educated groups, compared with one-third in Canada. The average benefit amount received was similar in both countries, but the coverage of disabled people was much lower in Canada than in the UK, leading to a high poverty risk among disabled people out of work. Our findings highlight the importance of income support systems in preventing the widening of the poverty-disability gap at older ages.

关于延长工作年限以应对人口老龄化的争论往往忽视了残疾老年人缺乏就业机会的问题。没有工作，他们的生活水平在很大程度上取决于政府的转移支付。这项研究通过分析两个自由民主国家（加拿大和英国）50 至 64 岁人群的收入来源和贫困结果，为关于健康不平等的文献做出了贡献，但残疾福利背景却截然不同。这种对国家的选择提供了一个机会来评估福利制度的设计是否导致最弱势群体在国家之间的表现不同。总体而言，加拿大没有工作的残疾老年人面临的贫困风险明显高于英国。公共转移支付在英国发挥了更大的作用，占低教育群体家庭收入的三分之二，而在加拿大这一比例为三分之一。两国获得的平均福利金额相似，但加拿大的残疾人覆盖率远低于英国，导致残疾人失业的贫困风险很高。我们的研究结果强调了收入支持系统在防止老年贫困与残疾差距扩大方面的重要性。