**Content Warning – The Scope information and the report describes experiences of financial, physical, and emotional distress.**
Life costs more if you’re disabled. This report by Scope uses data from the Family Resources Survey to calculate the extra costs faced by disabled households. We call this the ‘Disability Price Tag’.
Scope
Extracts
- On average, disabled households need an additional £1,010 a month to have the same standard of living as non-disabled households.
- On average, the extra cost of disability is equivalent to 67% of household income after housing costs.
For this report, 31 members of disabled households took part in interviews. They told how managing household finances alongside extra costs impacted them and their families' lives.
Living with the extra cost of disability
Disabled people and their families face daily financial and emotional battles because of these extra costs.
The financial struggle with extra costs is ongoing. And has a detrimental impact on the health and wellbeing of disabled people. At the very worst, this can be life-threatening.
What needs to change?
- Fix the broken benefits system so that it is fairer, more transparent, and better supports disabled people with their extra costs.
- Work Capability Assessment (WCA) must be replaced with an improved alternative. This must be based on input from disabled people and include fairer assessment criteria.
- Work alongside disabled people to design a new positive vision for Personal Independence Payment (PIP). At minimum, the benefit must be enhanced so it covers the essentials and assessments must be fairer.
- Make sure essential utilities are always affordable for disabled people. This must include introducing a discounted energy bills scheme. Disability benefits must also be included in the eligibility criteria for the Warm Home Discount.
- Introduce a government-funded ‘help to repay’ scheme. This will help disabled people to clear their debt on essential utilities.
- The government must make sure energy efficiency spending is better targeted towards disabled households.