Closing the Opportunity Gap

Closing the Opportunity Gap

31/01/2005

Briefing on Scottish Executive Debate on Closing the Opportunity Gap

Capability Scotland is the country’s leading disability organisation working for a just Scotland.  We work with children, adults and families living with a disability to support them in their everyday lives.  We are a leading provider of flexible, person-centred services for children and adults with a range of needs and disabilities.  Social justice is at the core of our ethos and we campaign on this by working with disabled people, their families and carers to influence policy legislation, practice and attitudes.

Key Facts on Poverty among Disabled People
(Findings from Capability Scotland’s 1 in 4 poll, Living on the Edge (2001))

• Nearly 40% of households live on less than £200 per week
• State benefits are main source of income for 70% of households
• Housing costs are 30% higher than the average standard rent in Scotland
• Over 40% of households are fuel poor, spending at least 10% of income on heating
• The average household spends £40.67 per week on food, nearly £30 less than the amount required to provide an adequate, modest diet for a family of four
• Spending on food by the very poorest households takes up one-quarter of income
• One quarter of households spend nearly 10% of income on a special diet for someone with a disability, medical condition or illness
• These households also spend more than 10% of weekly income on special equipment, clothing, materials, cleaning and laundry

Key Facts on Poverty in Families with Disabled Children

• Over 80% of parents with a disabled child are unemployed
• One in five families live on less than £200 per week
•  The average spend of families on housing costs is over £200 per month
• One in five worry that heating costs make it difficult to heat their home in winter
• Weekly spend on food is a third less than the amount required for an adequate diet
• Over 60% spend money every week on special equipment or materials

Key Facts from Scottish Executive research on disabled people
(Findings from Social Focus on Disability (2004))

• Just under 1 in 5 adults in Scotland have a disability and/or long term illness
• 41% of households with a disabled member have an annual income of under £10,000
• Nearly a third of Income Support claimants in Scotland are disabled
• Less than half of disabled adults are employed, compared to over 80% of non disabled adults
• Gross weekly pay is over £30 a week less than for non-disabled employees
• Only 4% of students at university in Scotland are disabled
• Over half of disabled people have no qualifications
• Households with a disabled member are much less likely to be homeowners
• Nearly 20% of households with a disabled member have no bank account
• Less than half have any savings or investments compared to nearly 60% of households without a disabled member

Key Issues

The Gap caused by Income and the Cost of Living

Disabled people are among the poorest members of our society because they are less likely to be in work, less likely to be in well paid work and more likely to be dependent on state benefits for their income.

Many disabled people pay higher than average housing costs, are fuel poor and are food poor.

Even when disabled people do work, they are likely to be in lower paid jobs than nondisabled people.  Welfare to work schemes like the New Deal for Disabled People do not appear to be achieving their aim – government research shows that in two and a half years, only 8,500 disabled people have achieved sustained employment, that is less than 20% of participants of the NDDP.

The Gap caused by Disability
Because of the nature of the benefits they receive, many disabled people in Scotland do not qualify for Income Support and therefore miss out on the gateway to other income related benefits.  These include free prescriptions, clothing grants, free eye tests and dental checks.  Capability Scotland’s 1 in 4 poll found that only half of disabled people surveyed received free dental care or eye tests and less than three quarters of respondents who are unemployed received free prescriptions.

Many families with disabled children are also paying costs from already meagre incomes associated with disability.  Many disabled children require a special diet due to the nature of their condition or illness – 10% of families surveyed by Capability Scotland spend more than £50 on such a diet.  For families with disabled children the average weekly spend on special equipment, clothing, materials or additional cleaning or laundry is £15.68.  More unemployed families than those in work pay this hidden cost.

The Gap caused by Our Inaccessible Society
An earlier 1 in 4 poll, Scotland Has Never Had It So Good?, found that a third of respondents had not had any changes made to their home to meet their needs.  Half of children and young people who took part in this survey said they shared a room with their parents.  Less than 20% of them went to a youth club or group like Guides or Scouts and less than half took part regularly in a sporting activity compared to 86% of non disabled children.

Many disabled people spend disproportionate amounts on transport.  More than half of households living on less than £200 per week run a car – because they cannot use cheaper, public transport modes. 

How to Close the Opportunity Gap for Disabled People
Too many disabled people in Scotland live on the edge of our society, in every sense.  Some of the worst off and most excluded are families with dependent children who have a disability, medical condition or long term illness.  Government at all levels must do more to provide “work for those who can and security for those who can’t” (Labour party manifesto 2001).  Poverty is the most pervasive of the complex factors conspiring to maintain disabled people and their families at the margins of our society.  Improving disabled people’s incomes would be a huge step forward in terms of closing the gap.

But that in itself would be insufficient.  To take account of the costs of disability, some households need a higher than average income.  At the same time, more must be done to remove the disabling barriers that exist in every community.  Communities should aspire to be barrier free, in all respects.

Closing the Opportunity Gap therefore requires a three-pronged approach – alleviating poverty, providing for the hidden costs of disability and making all aspects of community and everyday life accessible.

Key Steps in Closing the Opportunity Gap for Disabled People
Here are some of the steps Capability Scotland want to see the Scottish Executive and UK Government take:

• Policies to eradicate child poverty with measures designed to tackle poverty in families with disabled children
• A nationally funded, nationally co-ordinated benefits take up campaign
• Eligibility for clothing grant vouchers extended to tax credit recipients, as happened for free school meals
• Free prescriptions, eye tests and dental checks for all people on disability related benefits
• Extension of the Central Heating programme to families with disabled children, whether on benefits or not
• Winter fuel payments made available to people on disability related benefits
• Ring fenced resources for social regeneration to tackle disability issues, including disability specific food poverty
• Additional support for families with disabled children to meet equipment, materials, cleaning and laundry costs
• A reduction in the costs of caring through fairer charging systems
• A National Childcare Strategy that insists on fully accessible childcare schemes, trained staff and provides additional subsidies for childcare places for disabled children
• The national enterprise strategy, Smart Successful Scotland, providing routes into work and staying in work for disabled people
• Support and grants available to employers through enterprise agencies for employing disabled people and parents of disabled children
• Specialist support and help available locally for disabled people who want to start their own business
• Measures to address the loss of adapted housing through right to buy or tenancy inheritance
• Housing developers being required to provide a proportion of housing that is fully accessible in any development

For more information, please contact Kate Higgins, Policy and Parliamentary Affairs Manager, Capability Scotland
Tel:  0131 337 9876 
Direct Dial:  0131 347 1014 Fax:  0131 346 7864

Email:  kate.higgins@capability-scotland.org.uk 
Website:  http://www.capability-scotland.org.uk/

11 Ellersly Road, Edinburgh, EH12 6HY

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