Written evidence from Contact, Family Fund, Scope (CPM0012)

Summary

1. Scope, Contact and Family Fund collectively support thousands of disabled children and their families a year. We therefore welcome the opportunity to highlight the specific experiences of disabled children in our response to the Committee’s inquiry into children and poverty.

2. Evidence shows that being a child and being disabled can increase the likelihood of living in poverty. Being disabled comes with extra costs, and is associated with lower educational attainment and lower levels of employment. Furthermore, many parents of disabled children have to give up work in order to meet their caring responsibilities, and half of people in poverty live with a disabled family member. The welfare reforms of the last decade, plus the present Covid-19 pandemic, have exacerbated the hardships disabled people and their families face. Despite this, little work on poverty has focused on disabled children. It is essential that this changes if the aim of child poverty is to be achieved.

3. Our overarching calls are for Government to:

• Adopt the Social Metrics Commission’s poverty measure.
• Include disabled children in any measures, targets or frameworks around child poverty.
• Take immediate action on child poverty, integrating measures into existing frameworks and forthcoming strategies, such as the National Disability Strategy.

Disabled children and poverty

4. No child should be living in poverty, and we welcome efforts to tackle this issue. However, we believe that in order to truly end child poverty, any action taken by Government must address the specific needs of different groups of children, including disabled children. This is because being disabled and being a child both increase the risk of being in poverty.

5. The Social Metrics Commission (SMC, 2020) estimates that 4.5 million children – 33 per cent of all children in the UK - were living in poverty prior to the Covid-19 Pandemic ([1]).

6. 2 million (43 per cent) of the 4.5 million children in poverty are living in a family where someone is disabled. Amongst children living in a family where someone is disabled, 40 per cent are in poverty. In families with no disabled person, this figure is 29 per cent ([2]).

7. The likelihood of living in poverty decreases with age. 33 per cent of children aged under 4 were living in poverty. This compares with 23 per cent of adults aged 40-44, and 10 per cent of adults aged 75 and over ([3]).

8. Families with children are much more likely to be in poverty: single parent families have a poverty rate of 48 per cent, two-parent families have a poverty rate of 26 per cent, and couples without children have a poverty rate of 11 per cent ([4]).

9. Evidence shows that disabled people are more likely to be living in poverty than non-disabled people. There are 4 million disabled people in poverty, and a further 3.2 million in poverty who live with a disabled family member. This amounts to half (50 per cent) of people in poverty living in a family where somebody is disabled ([5]). In other words, 31 per cent of working-age adults who live in a family where there is a disabled child or adult are in poverty, compared to 16 per cent of those who do not.

The impact of Covid-19

10. The Covid-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on many people’s finances, despite Government interventions such as the £20 uplift to Universal Credit. All three of our organisations have been supporting disabled children and their families throughout the crisis, and we have seen first-hand the specific difficulties that disabled people and their families are facing.

11. Research by the Family Fund (2021) ([6]) found that:

• more than two in five families with a disabled child (44 per cent) have experienced a drop in income due to the pandemic.
• Almost half of families with a disabled child (46 per cent) have seen their debts increase over the last year.
• Two in five families (40 per cent) have had to draw upon their savings to manage reducing incomes and increasing costs, leaving more than seven in 10 families (72 per cent) with no money to fall back on.

12. Ultimately, this all means that disabled children are especially likely to be in poverty, due to the combined risk factors of disability and age, and that the hardships they face have only been exacerbated by the current crisis.

The impacts of child poverty

13. The impacts of child poverty are multiple and can be long-lasting. Growing up in poverty can impact a child’s educational attainment, and in turn their future career prospects ([7]). This is especially significant for disabled children when you consider the fact that the disability employment gap has stayed around 30 per cent for more than a decade ([8]).

14. There remains a significant educational attainment gap between disabled and non-disabled children. Evidence shows that disabled children enter secondary school with lower attainment levels at Key Stage 2 ([9]), and go on to be less likely to gain the top grades at GCSE level ([10]). For example, in 2016/17, 25 per cent of children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) attained grades 9-4 in English and mathematics, compared to 70.4 per cent of those without.

15. Children with SEN are also much more likely to be excluded from school than those without, and account for 70 per cent of permanent exclusions ([11]).

16. The pandemic could significantly impact disabled children’s attainment even further. During the autumn term, 8 per cent of disabled children in England did not attend nursery/school at all, and of those who did, more than half (56 per cent) only attended for some of the time ([12]).

17. During the last year, four in five disabled children (80 per cent) have been educated for some period at home ([13]). For many parents, this has been a challenging situation due to a lack of appropriate equipment or support.

18. For example, more than half (57 per cent) did not have a printer/ink, two fifths (40 per cent) did not have a computer or tablet for the child to use, and more than a third (36 per cent) did not have the necessary specialist technology or equipment ([14]).

19. If parents can’t afford the appropriate equipment, disabled children can’t get the education they need for as long as the pandemic means that they are having to be educated at home. Given that disabled children are particularly likely to be in poverty, the educational attainment gap could widen as a result. This risks having a long-term impact on disabled children’s life chances, potentially further entrenching them in poverty as adults.

20. Growing up in poverty can also affect a child’s wellbeing and can lead to the development of mental health problems ([15]). It therefore risks increasing the incidence of disability among children. Given that most mental health problems first arise in childhood, it also risks increasing the incidence of disability in future generations of adults.

21. 79 per cent of parents of a disabled child have reported that their child’s mental health has worsened during the pandemic, whilst half (49 per cent) reported that their child’s physical health worsened ([16]). This means that there is no better time to work to end poverty for disabled children than now, in order to prevent these becoming long-term problems.

22. We also know that without the right support, raising a disabled child can be a stressful experience for the family.

23. Parent carers report lower wellbeing than the general population. Their wellbeing has been further impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic ([17]).

24. Evidence shows the potential impact on familial relationships; according to one study, 31 per cent of couples who have a disabled child report some problems, 13 per cent cite major problems and 9 per cent actually separate ([18]).

25. Families with more work are less likely to be in poverty ([19]). Only 16 per cent of mothers with disabled children work, compared to 61 per cent of other mothers ([20]). 87 per cent of parents of disabled children say they or their partner cannot work as much as they would like due to caring responsibilities ([21]).

Extra costs for disabled children and their families

26. Scope research found that disabled people face extra costs due to their condition as compared to non-disabled people. On average, pre-pandemic, families with a disabled child face extra costs of £581 a month. For almost a quarter (24 per cent) of families with a disabled child, these extra costs reach over £1000 a month ([22]).

27. Research by Contact states that it costs up to three times as much to raise a disabled child, as it does to raise a non-disabled child ([23]).

28. For some disabled children, their families being unable to meet all these extra costs can have serious consequences. Just over a quarter (26 per cent) of disabled children are going without essential therapies, whilst almost a fifth (19 per cent) are going without specialist equipment or adaptations ([24]).

29. Extra costs have increased for many due to the pandemic:

• Three in five families with a disabled child (62 per cent) report that their household costs are at higher levels than they were before the coronavirus outbreak.
• Half (49 per cent) reported struggling to pay their energy bills over the last 12 months.
• Three quarters (76 per cent) have had to spend more on heating or cooling their home due to their disabled child’s condition over the last 12 months; this compares to 59 per cent the year before, demonstrating the pandemic’s dramatic impact on household costs ([25]).

30. Other extra costs for disabled children can include specialist therapies and toys; for disabled people generally, extra costs can also include specialist transport and higher food costs ([26]).

31. Extra costs are caused by inequality, not by disability itself. Nonetheless, disabled people are likely to have a lower standard of living as a result of trying to meet these costs.

Measurements and targets

32. Government must account for the specific needs of disabled children and their families within child poverty measures. The extra costs that disabled children and their families face must also be considered within poverty metrics.

33. Therefore, we support the SMC’s measure of poverty ([27]). This measure accounts for both the extra costs that come with being disabled, and the extra costs of having children. The measure also considers a person’s material resources beyond just their income, and looks at people’s ability to live in accordance with the UK’s social norms. This represents a far more in-depth measure of poverty.

34. The SMC’s measure of poverty is also supported by the Work and Pensions Committee which previously recommended that it should be officially adopted ([28]).

35. Government has previously committed to developing an experimental statistic based on the SMC’s measurement framework ([29]). We recommend that the Government continue to work on developing this statistic, but also that they formally adopt the measurement framework so that the poverty rates for disabled children can continue to be measured annually.

36. Additionally, any targets to reduce child poverty should include specific targets to reduce the number of disabled children in poverty.

Recommendations:

• Government to adopt the SMC’s poverty measure.
• Government to include specific targets around disabled children in any targets to reduce child poverty.

Joint working and a child poverty strategy

37. As outlined above, child poverty has many dimensions so a joined-up approach across Government is necessary. This requires collaboration and accountability to support the overarching, shared aim of ending child poverty.

38. We are concerned that developing a new child poverty strategy would delay urgently-needed action.  We suggest that Government learns from the Child Poverty Strategy 2014-17 and instead of developing a new one, embeds child poverty into existing frameworks and forthcoming strategies, such as the National Disability Strategy (NDS).

39. However, if the Government were to develop a new child poverty strategy, we would want there to be specific measures addressing the needs of disabled children within it. It should also be interlinked with the NDS.

Recommendation:

• Government to embed the aim to reduce child poverty in existing frameworks and strategies.

About Scope 

We’re Scope, the disability equality charity. We will not stop until we achieve a society where all disabled people enjoy equality and fairness. At home. At school. At work. In our communities. 

We’re a strong community of disabled and non-disabled people. We provide practical and emotional information and support when it’s needed most. We use our collective power to change attitudes and end injustice. www.scope.org.uk

About Family Fund

Family Fund is the UK’s largest charity providing grants for families on low incomes raising disabled or seriously ill children and young people.  Last year we provided just under 93,000 grants and services worth over £32.5 million to families.

With grant funding from the four UK governments, trusts and foundations, private donations, and gifted income from our trading subsidiary, Family Fund Business Services, we provide a wide range of items, such as essential kitchen appliances, much-needed family breaks, computers and tablets, and more. You can find out more by visiting www.familyfund.org.uk

About Contact

Contact supports families with disabled children across the UK. Contact strives to be there for every family whatever their child’s condition or need. Last year, we helped 178,000 families, supported 1,580 parents with very poorly children in hospital and boosted family incomes on average by almost £5,000 per year after a call to our family finances helpline. Contact achieves this with a dedicated, compassionate and caring team of staff and Trustees many of who are parents and siblings with disabled children.  Find out more: www.contact.org.uk

February 21