The think tank, New Policy Institute, has produced a report about the links between poverty and disability. It has found that '...half of people in poverty are in a household with a disabled person or are disabled themselves.'
'Disabled people are more likely than non-disabled people to be disadvantaged in multiple aspects of life: these are problems in of themselves and also contributing factors to poverty....'
They suggest factors are-
'
Employment- Forty-six per cent of working-age disabled people are in employment, compared with 80% of non-disabled people...'
'Skills- a considerable ‘skills gap’ between disabled and non-disabled people when measured by qualifications. Only 15% of disabled people have a degree, compared with around 30% of non-disabled people..., 15% of 25- to 29-year-old disabled people have no qualifications, compared with 6% of non-disabled people in the same age range...'
'Low pay Low pay rates for disabled people are higher than those for non- disabled people, at 34% compared with 27%. This is the case at every level of qualfication...'
'Costs
Disabled people face higher costs than non-disabled people, such as the cost of equipment to manage a condition... There is evidence that ‘extra costs’ benefits such as Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and Personal Independence Payment (PIP) do not cover these extra costs sufficiently: in the bottom fifth of the income distribution, disabled people are more likely to be materially deprived, whether they receive extra costs benefits or not...
'Social security system
The social security system plays an important role in supporting those unable to work, whether temporarily or over a longer time period, as well as mitigating some of the extra costs of disability. It has been the focus of policy reform for a number of years, with a redistribution of support within the disabled population and a greater degree of conditionality. The former has produced winners and losers, whereas the latter saw a spike in the sanctioning of disabled people, which has now abated...'
Advisers recognise that difficulty accessing benefits has exacerbated this.
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