In the Balance
In light of last week's news from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation that increasing numbers of disabled people are living in poverty (reported in ,) now seems like a good time to draw Ouch! readers' attention to In the Balance: Disabled People's Experiences of Debt, which is a report produced by Leonard Cheshire as part of a series which examines aspects of disabled people's exclusion. It can be downloaded in pdf format from their , and there's also a link from which you can order a copy in an alternate format.
Given that the report is 36 pages long, it's clearly not possible to provide a detailed summary of it here. However, here a few key points to whet your appetites.
- Generally speaking, disabled people don't get into debt because of frivolous over-spending: they get into debt because their incomes are inadequate.
- 49 per cent of disabled adults are not in full-time paid employment.
- Disabled people are seven times more likely to be out of work and claiming benefits than non-disabled people.
- People with mental health problems are almost three times as likely to be in debt as members of the general population.
- 68 per cent of those who contributed to the report had had to leave work as the direct result of injury, a deterioration in health, or the worsening of an existing impairment.
- Even those who previously had an excellent credit history often found that their change in circumstances resulted in lenders increasing their interest rates because they were seen as a 'higher financial risk'.
- 67 per cent said that their financial problems had meant they had been forced to cut back on services, equipment or aids which would have helped them to manage their impairment.
- There are between 60,000 and 80,000 cold-related deaths in the UK annually, but many disabled people have no option but to cut back on heating their houses, even though living in low temperatures often aggravates the effects of their impairments.
- The majority of creditors lack disability awareness and are unsympathetic to the specific problems faced by disabled debtors.
- Although the DLA is intended to help with additional costs resulting from disability, it is nevertheless often included in creditors' assessments of disabled people's disposable income.
The report closes with two pages of wide-ranging recommendations which, if taken up, would serve to dramatically reduce the exclusion faced by disabled people who are in debt.
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