Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-2xdlg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-05T12:20:07.226Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - Disabled People and Carers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2024

Helen Barnard
Affiliation:
Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York
Get access

Summary

I can't afford to heat my flat. I can't afford to put the hot water on. For washing dishes, it's cheaper for me to boil a kettle. I have a blanket and thermals on now, as I can’t afford to put the heating on.

Disabled person, cited in Young (2021)

It's strange how little we talk about the fact that half of the 14 million people in poverty in the UK are disabled or live with someone who is. Nearly four in ten working-age disabled people live in poverty, more than twice as high as the rate for non-disabled adults. Comparing the UK with other European countries shows that we are failing our disabled fellow citizens to a greater extent than most other countries (according to official Eurostat disability statistics). We have a higher proportion of disabled people at risk of poverty and social exclusion than all the other northern European countries aside from Germany, which equals us. The gap between poverty rates for disabled and non-disabled people is also particularly high in the UK.

Disabled people tend to have lower incomes than non-disabled people, with higher costs, pulling them into hardship. Carers are also much more likely to be trapped in poverty than those who aren't caring for other adults, in large part because they need to balance paid work and unpaid caring, which restricts the hours and jobs they can do. Young carers are also disadvantaged where their school education or chance to gain more qualifications as an adult have been constrained by their caring role. Of the nearly 4.5 million informal adult carers in the UK, almost a quarter are living in poverty. Three factors drive this: limited access to good jobs, higher costs and inadequate social security.

ACCESS TO GOOD JOBS

Work is how most people escape poverty, but disabled people are far less likely to be employed than non-disabled people and they’re paid less when they are in work. Just over half of disabled people were employed in 2019, compared to 82 per cent of non-disabled people. That gap has closed slightly in recent years but incredibly slowly. Work generally needs to be full time to be a reliable route out of poverty, but disabled people are more likely than non-disabled people to work part time: 32 per cent compared to only 20 per cent.

Type
Chapter
Information
Want , pp. 33 - 46
Publisher: Agenda Publishing
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×