Ending the disability price tag

Leading charity Scope has published a new report showing that disabled households need an additional £1,010 a month to have the same standard of living as non-disabled households.

Scope’s Disability Price Tag report found that this extra cost is equivalent to 67% of household income after housing costs. This is for any house with at least one disabled adult or child.

That’s even accounting for disability benefit payments such as Personal Independence Payments, which are designed to help people pay for these extra costs.

The charity found that disabled households were already cutting costs wherever possible. But with them needing to spend more on things like energy bills to keep warm, it was proving difficult.

It says it is leading the UK’s 16.1 million disabled population to make tough decisions about their spending habits. This includes having to go without vital things they need. And it leads to stress, shame, social isolation and hopelessness.

Scope have long campaigned for a social tariff. This aims to give disabled people, older people, and carers who are facing high energy costs discounted energy bills.

They say that disabled people often cannot simply ‘use less’ gas, water and electricity. Doing so significantly risks their physical and mental health.

This includes people like Robin, who said:

“I’ve learnt, over the last three years, that it’s not just a case of saving anymore: you have to sacrifice almost everything. Last winter, I didn’t go anywhere. I didn’t eat as much. I just turned off all the lights. I didn’t have a choice. It felt horrible.”

James Taylor, Executive Director of Strategy, Impact and Social Change at Scope, said:

“At Scope, we know that life costs more if you are disabled. We know that these costs are down to many things. The high price of specialist products, as well as the need to use more of essentials like energy. These things add up.

“Our latest Disability Price Tag calculation estimates that extra costs equate to a staggering £1,010 per month on average. For a disabled household to have the same standard of living as an equivalent non-disabled household.

“These extra costs place an unequal burden on the disabled people and families who must meet them. These costs are a result of our society not doing enough.”

As part of the report, Scope have made a series of recommendations, including:

• Making the benefits to be system fairer, more transparent and better support disabled people with extra costs.
• Replacing work capability assessments with an improved alternative, with input from disabled people.
• Disabled people being put at the heart of a new design process to create a new positive vision for Personal Independence Payments.
• Making sure essential utilities are always affordable for disabled people. This includes the introduction of a discounted energy bills scheme. Disability benefits must also be included in the eligibility criteria for the Warm Home Discount.
• The introduction a government-funded ‘help to repay’ scheme. This will help disabled people clear their debt on essential utilities.
• Urging government to better target energy efficiency spending towards disabled households.

The charity has also recently set outs its vision for an equal future for all, aimed at transforming attitudes towards disabled people, ending this disability price tag and closing the disability employment gap.

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