Tag: disabled people

The financial wellbeing of disabled households in October 2023

Posted on by david.collings

By Jamie Evans, Katie Cross and Sharon Collard

Foodbanks and benefit inadequacy

The October 2023 edition of the abrdn Financial Financial Fairness Tracker shows an increase in the number of UK households that are facing real hardship, with 9% of all households having used a foodbank in the past six months (compared with 6% in October 2022). Worryingly, this rises to 20% among those receiving disability-related benefits (up from 12% in October 2022), suggesting that the level of benefit support for disabled people has become increasingly insufficient against a backdrop of rising costs. Even more concerningly, recent Trussell Trust research shows that 62% of people in disabled households referred to foodbanks were not receiving any benefits specifically related to their disability.

Figure – Proportion of those receiving disability benefits who have used a foodbank in the past six months


Notes: We define ‘disability-related benefits’ as those receiving any of: Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Disability Living Allowance (DLA), Adult Disability Payment, Employment and Support Allowance, and Carer’s Allowance. October 2023 sample sizes:; disability-related benefits = 912.

Cost of Living payments

During the cost of living crisis the UK Government has provided certain groups of people with Cost of Living (CoL) payments. These do alleviate some of the most severe forms of hardship faced by households. Citizens Advice, for example, reports decreases in foodbank referrals in the weeks following CoL payments being made; but impacts tend to be short-lived, with referrals ticking upwards in the following months.

A third (32%) of Tracker households told us that they had received a CoL Payment in the past 12 months, with 27% of these being ‘in serious financial difficulty’. Households receiving the low-income CoL payment were most likely to be experiencing serious financial difficulties (35%), compared with 31% of those receiving the disability payment and just 15% of those receiving the pensioner payment.

Extra energy costs

Disabled households in the Tracker – many of whom are likely to have comparatively high energy needs – were among those struggling most with energy costs and anxious about future costs. Indeed, the most common extra cost faced by disabled people in our recent study with disabled people was energy or other utility bills (incurred by 78% of respondents), as one participant described:

“On any given day, it’s mandatory that I have power for: an electric bed (all night), an electric toilet (several times a day), an electric bath (once a day), an electric wheelchair (charged daily at nights), an electric hoist (used several times a day and permanently on charge), a lift (used frequently daily)… and that’s not including any ‘normal’ devices that folks use like kettle, internet, TV, heating and oven!” (Evans et al, 2023).

According to the Tracker, 6% of all households were behind with electricity bills and 5% with gas/other energy bills in October 2023. These rates were, however, double for disabled households (13% for electricity; 11% gas/other energy). Disabled households were also more likely to be paying for energy using a pre-payment meter (28% compared with 18% of all households).

Finally, Tracker data shows signs of increasing credit stress for disabled households, who were much more likely to have fallen behind on consumer credit than others (25% compared with 16% of all households).

Conclusion

Given the latest Tracker figures, it is unsurprising that three-in-five disabled households (59%) are worried about their financial situation in the next three months. Many disabled people will be further concerned by the rhetoric rising from the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement. The disability charity Scope said that the Chancellor had “doubled down on a plan that will ramp up sanctions and demonises disabled people”. This tallies with our earlier research, which found that seven-in-ten (71%) disabled benefit recipients had been made to feel guilty about applying for benefits, predominantly caused by societal stigma about doing so.

Our findings show that to help disabled people improve their financial situations requires four main things:

  • Better access to employment for those who can work
  • A benefits system that provides a proper safety net
  • Targeted support to reduce the costs of disability
  • Access to essential services and advice.

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Disabled people are already cutting back on costs more than others – for many, the £150 cost of living payment won’t do much to help

Posted on by david.collings
NDAB Creativity / Shutterstock

Sharon Collard, University of Bristol and Jamie Evans, University of Bristol

Even before the current cost of living crisis, disabled people were much more likely than non-disabled people to be in poverty and living on inadequate incomes. Now, spiralling living costs are adding to years of financial disadvantage. Our new analysis of YouGov survey data starkly illustrates the situation, showing that three in ten disabled households are in serious financial difficulty.

The UK government has announced several measures that will provide some relief for many, including an energy price freeze and payments totalling £650 for people on means-tested benefits. All households will also receive a £400 reduction in energy bills via instalments spread over six months, and 8 million pensioner households are receiving a separate one-off payment of £300.

Disabled people who receive benefits that aren’t based on income (non-means-tested) will also get a one-off cost of living payment of £150. But while these measures are welcome, this amount is a fraction compared to the additional costs disabled people typically have to cover.

Disabled households often need to spend more on essentials like heating and insurance, as well as necessary equipment, therapies and support. In 2019, disability charity Scope estimated that disabled people in the UK face extra costs of £583 per month, on average. For one fifth of disabled people, this “disability price tag” was over £1,000.

Rising energy costs are particularly impacting households that need to run vital equipment. Wheelchairs, feeding and suction pumps, or ceiling hoists all need to be constantly charged. Some people may also need additional heating to stay warm to prevent pain or seizures.

Considering these already higher costs, it should not come as a surprise that disabled households are disproportionately cutting back or doing without compared with other households. We found that four in ten have cut back on overall spending in 2022, and half have already struggled to keep their home warm this year. Similar proportions have reported reducing their use of the cooker and shower.

Around one in ten non-disabled households report that rising costs mean they are eating fewer meals. This rises to three in ten among disabled households. A survey conducted by the charity Family Fund found that half of carers looking after disabled children have skipped meals in the last year. We increasingly hear about “choosing between heating and eating”, but there are concerning reports of some being forced to choose between heating and medication.

Many disabled households are already at a breaking point, even before we enter a more costly winter. There is nothing else these families can cut back on. The situation is so dire for some that for the first time in its history, the deaf-blind and complex impairments charity Sense is giving cost of living grants of £500 directly to families.

When work and benefits aren’t enough

Soaring inflation means that disabled people in employment are experiencing the same real terms fall in wages as the rest of the working-age population. Around half of working-age disabled people are in work, but many others are excluded from participating in the labour market.

There is a large gap between the rate of disabled and non-disabled people in employment, for many reasons including structural and discriminatory barriers. Disabled people are also underemployed due to the quality of jobs on offer to them, forced to take lower-skilled or lower-paid roles offering fewer or infrequent hours.

Across all UK households in serious financial difficulty, disabled households are much more likely to have no earners than their non-disabled counterparts. But with a quarter of disabled households who have two full-time workers currently in serious financial difficulty, work is by no means a guarantee of avoiding hardship. In-work poverty disproportionately affects disabled people.

Close up photo of a woman's hands against an old-fashioned radiator
Rising energy costs are particularly harmful to disabled households.
Zvone / Shutterstock

Disabled people are more likely to engage with the social security system. This is partly due to their lower employment rate, but also because there are benefits available to assist with the higher cost of living with a disability. State benefits for disabled people rose by 3.1% in April.

But, as is the case with earned income, rising inflation means that benefits are shrinking in real terms. For disabled households, this means substantial monthly financial losses.

Families with a disabled adult were among the hardest hit groups from changes to the social security system in the 2010s, with the inadequacy of provision for disabled people attracting widespread criticism. The process of applying for disability benefits has been described by disability campaigners and charities as complicated and inhumane.

For lower-income disabled households, these new cost of living payments will be insufficient or at best, a short-term solution to longstanding financial inequalities. These disadvantages are more widely corrosive, driving social exclusion, limiting agency and choice, and ultimately impacting people’s mental health and wellbeing.

To meet the scale of the crisis faced by disabled households, longer-term solutions – such as proposals for a decent social security system – are certainly needed if we are to avoid a further decline in living standards.The Conversation

Sharon Collard, Professor of Personal Finance, University of Bristol and Jamie Evans, Senior Research Associate in personal finance, University of Bristol

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.