- Conference
- 2022 National Disabled Members' Conference
- Date
- 8 July 2022
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
Conferences notes the cost of living crisis which will disproportionately impact on disabled people.
Even before the pandemic, disability related expenses or the ‘disability price tag’ was on average £583 extra per month compare to non-disabled people, according to the 2019 Scope Disability Price Tag report. One in five faced extra costs of more than a £1000. Over a half of disabled adults worried about how they would afford to pay their bills.
More than a decade of Conservative cuts to Local Government funding have also led to increased social care charges for disabled people.
This alongside the current cost of living crisis, with a National Insurance rise, food and petrol prices trebled, frozen tax allowances and fuel bill average rises of £686 per annum, means that most people will suffer, but disabled people even more so.
Disabled people are twice as likely to be unemployed and our income has fallen in real terms with benefits payments, including in work benefits many low paid disabled workers rely on to make ends meet, failing to keep up with rocketing inflation, meaning disabled people can afford less than ever.
Disabled people are also about to also lose their warm homes discount, added to the fact that many rely on energy not just for heating but for powering specialist life saving equipment such as oxygen machines, or equipment vital to achieving independence such as electric wheelchairs. These are unavoidable costs that can’t be cut back so disabled people’s bills will inevitably increase, along with their social isolation. This will not just mean a choice of heating and eating but for some breathing.
Some disabled people have impairments that are impacted by cold and need to spend more on heating their homes to avoid pain – they are therefore doubly susceptible to increases in energy prices. Additionally, there has been a massive increase in disabled workers working from home or hybrid working since the pandemic. Many of these workers will have reasonable adjustments at home, such as assistive technology or additional devices which require frequent charging and add a “cost of disability” to their already increasing utility bills.
A report from Leonard Cheshire released in April 2022 found that:
· 55% of disabled people feel anxious, depressed or hopeless due to the financial difficulties they are experiencing
· Around a quarter had missed meals (25%) or not heated their homes (28%), while around a third (30%) had to ask for financial help from friends or family.
· A third of those surveyed said they have £50 or less to live on a week.
Conference further notes this research found that over half million disabled people (7%) are already living off just £10 a week after bills. It is just not acceptable for the sixth richest economy in the world to subject people to such poverty living.
Disabled Women will face a double whammy, with just over half in paid employment and for those with certain impairments the disability pay gap is as large as 18.9%.
Conference welcomes the £150 cost of living allowance for disabled people but one-off payments are just a drop in the ocean. Few people receive the maximum payment for Personal Independence Payments (PIP) or Disability Living Allowance (DLA). Simply put one size does not fit all. With inflation now running at 9%, this will wipe out any benefit increases and will ultimately cost lives.
Conference therefore calls on the national disabled members committee to:
1)Raise awareness of the impact of the cost of living crisis on disabled people across the union and ensure that these issues are highlighted as part of UNISON’s national campaigning on the issue
2)Seek ways of feeding into the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy and the National Disability Strategy committee that has formed a new task force to better understand the additional expenses and extra costs faced by disabled people
3)Lobby the Labour Party, via the Labour Link, to commit to the reform of PIP to accurately capture the extra cost of being disabled and to help disabled people to live independently
4)Campaign to end the Disability Pay Gap and for mandatory publication of the pay gap
5)Promote the Disability Employment Charter as a way of improving disabled workers’ income through better access to reasonable adjustments, Access to Work support and supporting disabled people into good quality employment