The Demos Think Tank has found that
since its inception 14 months ago welfare reform has cost disabled people and
their carers £500 million. These findings are part of the Disability in
Austerity project Demos has undertaken with support from Scope. Six disabled
households were followed so assess how a range of benefit and service cuts
affect their lives.
The report found that parents of a
disabled child are £410 worse off. A disabled mother and her disabled child are
£558 worse off in the study. These losses aren't small for the lowest income
households because, Demos argues, these households deal with higher living
costs as they manage their health conditions.
The Demos study also reflects on the
human cost of welfare reform. They heard how people couldn't afford replacement
wheels for wheelchairs. How parents had to skip hospital appointments for their
disabled child because they couldn't afford the diesel. How one couple had to
stay home as they couldn't afford to go out, and another couldn't afford to
stay home due to heating costs.
Demos identified longer term trends
that have become apparent throughout the research:
There has been deterioration in mental
health. Reports of stress and depression for the disabled people in the study
and their families became more prevalent over the two years. Financial hardship
has made life harder, there is the uncertainty and fear of what the future
holds as new reforms take effect, and there is a felt sense of hostility from
the state as disabled people are treated with suspicion by welfare authorities
and harangued in the media, Demos claims.
There has been growing isolation and
exclusion from community life as families move into what might be described as
‘survival mode’: a lack of resources and the closure of support services has
led to families reducing their activities to the very basics, often within the
home. So essentials such as medical appointments have been sacrificed,
alongside ‘luxuries’ such as working, training and volunteering. Leisure
pursuits and socialising are out of the question. Decades of work by disabled
people and charities to promote inclusion and equality of access to a social,
working and community life is unravelling as disabled people become socially
and financially excluded and isolated in their homes.
The burden on informal carers is
increasing as formal support – or the resources to buy financial support – is
cut away, the Demos study found. The parents of the two disabled children in
the study felt that they would not receive any help from the state until they
had reached ‘breaking point’, and were told – as support was taken from them –
that they ‘should be able to cope’. All reported physical and mental ill health
resulting from their burden of care.
The report concludes that this presents
a bleak picture for disabled people with more issues to arise as only 12% of
the government’s austerity plans have been implemented. Key welfare reforms –
such as the replacement of Disability Living Allowance – are yet to come. Local
authorities have three quarters of their budget cuts still to make. Although
disabled people and their carers are £500 million worse off to date, Demos
predicts that this group will lose £9 billion by 2015-16.
