Scope, the disability charity, has asked us to support their mission to end the Disability Price Tag by sharing their new campaign and report findings.
In an exclusive with ITV News on Friday 1 March, Scope launched a new report called Life Costs More. If you missed it, you can watch it on ITVX.
On average, disabled households need an additional income of £975 a month to have the same standard of living as equivalent non-disabled households. They need to find £625 more each year just for the very basics.
These extra costs are essentials such as:
- using more energy to power medical equipment
- more expensive food to meet dietary needs
- having to buy over-the-counter medications more often.
There is no escape from high energy bills when you have to power medical equipment or you live with a condition affected by the cold. You can’t avoid more expensive shopping bills when you have a specific diet or need to buy medication.
Disabled people have always had less money in their pockets than non-disabled people. Far from getting better, it is getting worse.
Scope wrote to the Prime Minister ahead of the Budget on 6 March calling for two things:
- The introduction of an ‘essentials payment’ of £12 a week for disabled people receiving PIP or DLA to immediately lift 115,000 disabled people out of poverty.
- A government-funded discounted energy bill for disabled households.
