Many families with disabled children 'living in poverty'

from The Guardian

Almost all families with disabled children are suffering from financial difficulties, according to a report published today.

Many struggle with the extra costs of raising disabled children, which is calculated to be three times higher than other children, and they face barriers to working, said the Every Disabled Child Matters (EDCM) campaign, an alliance of Mencap, Contact a Family, Council for Disabled Children and the Special Educational Consortium.

More than nine in 10 (93%) families reported some form of financial difficulty, with only 6% saying they were comfortably off.

The report said more than one in five families with disabled children cannot afford to feed their family properly. Such families are 50% more likely to be in debt than others and 50% less likely to be able to afford new clothes or school outings when compared with other families.

Steve Broach, the EDCM campaign's manager, said: "It is scandalous that families with disabled children are forced to choose between going into debt or going without.

"We want government to prove that disabled children are at the heart of efforts to end child poverty by committing to a major take-up campaign on disability living allowance, the critical source of extra income for families."

The EDCM said only about 50% of families with disabled children claimed the allowance, and more than 100,000 were potentially missing out on extra funds.

The campaign is also calling for an increase in the childcare element of the working tax credit for disabled families to £300 a week and demanding that the disability living allowance meets the "real cost" of caring for a disabled child.

The allowance is divided into two parts: the care component, a maximum tax-free weekly rate of £64.50, to pay for personal care, plus, for those who cannot walk or need help getting around, a mobility component, a maximum tax-free weekly rate of £45.

The EDCM welcomed an extra £340m for services in England pledged by Ed Balls, the minister for children, schools and families, in his Aiming High for Disabled Children review, carried out in May when he was at the Treasury.

But Mr Broach added: "Now we need to see evidence that Mr Balls' commitment to disabled children will extend to making sure that the child poverty strategy delivers for our families."

Family Fund, a charity that provides grants to families with severely disabled children, said that 44% of families helped by the fund lived in poverty and 83% earned below-average incomes.

Marion Lowe, the fund's chief executive, said: "The recent announcement of £340m for disabled children's services was excellent and should help raise family incomes over time.

"But unless disabled children's families and other hard-to-reach families get more direct financial support now, the government may well miss its 2010 target for cutting child poverty by half. As a priority measure, the government should increase by £34m the Family Fund's grant, which has not been raised since 2003, and increase the disability living allowance and the childcare element of the working tax credits."

A spokeswoman for the Department for Work and Pensions said: "Families of disabled children often face additional costs and the disability living allowance, carer's allowance and the disabled child element in child tax credits are there specifically to help parents meet those costs.

"The department is working alongside important groups like Citizens Advice Bureau to ensure that people can easily access information on how to receive the benefits they are entitled to."