Background Little is known about child disability and dynamic aspects of poverty.

Method Analysis of data collected over a 12-month period for families (a) supporting a child with intellectual disability (n = 370), (b) supporting a child with other disability (n = 1,418), and (c) supporting a child with no disability (n = 7,215).

Results When compared to families not supporting a child with disability, families supporting a child with intellectual disability were (a) more likely to be poor, (b) more likely to become poor, (c) less likely to escape from being poor. Half of poverty transitions were associated with identifiable potential trigger events.

Conclusions There were few differences between families supporting or not supporting a child with disability with regard to either levels of exposure to potential trigger events or to the strength of the association between exposure and poverty transitions.