The Disability Price Tag, Scope’s updated research for 2019, reveals the extra costs faced by disabled people and families with disabled children.
Key findings for disabled people:
- On average disabled people face extra costs of £583 a month
- On average, a disabled person’s extra costs are equivalent to almost half of their income (not including housing costs)
- 1 in 5 disabled people face extra costs of more than £1,000 a month
- Disabled people’s money doesn’t tend to go as far. On average, £100 for a non-disabled person is equivalent to just £68 for a disabled person.
Key findings for families with disabled children:
- On average families with disabled children face extra costs of £581 a month
- For almost a quarter (24%) of families with disabled children, extra costs amount to over £1,000 a month.
Scope are calling on Government to tackle the extra costs faced by disabled people and their families. We need action in four areas:
Universal Credit (UC)
- Use the trial of ‘managed migration’ to ensure disabled people don’t lose access to financial support as they move to UC
- Work with disabled people and disability organisations to develop new components within UC to offset loss of support
- Work with families and disability organisations to ensure disabled children receive support to help meet extra costs.
Personal Independence Payments (PIP)
- Reform the PIP assessment to accurately capture extra costs faced by disabled people.
Warm Home Discount
- Reform core eligibility criteria so that support can be more effectively targeted at disabled people.
Early Intervention and Family Resilience fund
- Set up an Early Intervention and Family Resilience Fund. Investing in emotional support for the whole family at the point of diagnosis.
