Responding to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation UK Poverty Report 2024, Dr Rhidian Hughes, Chief Executive of the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group (VODG) says:
‘Too many disabled people and their families are already at breaking point. The recent report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation is a stark reminder of the disproportionate costs disabled people face, driving too many into poverty.
‘The report finds that disabled people continue to face a higher risk of poverty driven partly by the barriers to work disabled people face, and partly by the additional costs associated with disability and ill-health, exacerbated by rising costs of living.
‘That is why we are joining other third sector organisations calling on the government to help address some of the ongoing hardship too many disabled people face. This means ensuring vulnerable households receive energy support and setting benefits at a level that means disabled people can afford the essentials. Too often current benefits are falling woefully short. No-one should need to use funds allocated to help with a disability to cover the costs of everyday essentials. An Essentials Guarantee would be a step forward in ensuring disabled people are able to live the lives they choose.’
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Amongst the report's findings:
- Over one in five people in the UK (22%) were in poverty in 2021/22
- This equates to 14.4 million people in total, with 8.1 million working-age adults, 4.2 million children and 2.1 million pensioners living in poverty
- Nearly two-thirds (64%) of working-age adults in poverty live in working households. This has increased by 3 percentage points, from 61% to 64%, between 2020/21 and 2021/22
- The number and proportion of children and pensioners in poverty rose between 2020/21 and 2021/22, as well as overall poverty
- Around two in every ten adults are in poverty in the UK, with about three in every ten children being in poverty
- Around 6 million people lived in very deep poverty in 2021/22 overall
- Disabled people face a higher risk of poverty and have done so for at least the past 20 years. This is driven partly by the additional costs associated with disability and ill-health, and partly by the barriers to work that disabled people face. However, the proportion of disabled working age adults in work increased from 42% in 2010/11 to 51% in 2021/22, while poverty rates remained steady over that period.
- In the latest data, there were 15.7 million disabled people in the UK – that is, nearly one in four people (24%) – and just over a third of all families contained at least one person who was disabled.
- The poverty rate for disabled people was 31%, 12 percentage points higher than the rate for people who were not disabled.
- Nearly half of all people who were disabled and living in poverty had a long-term, limiting mental condition – around 2.3 million people. The poverty rate for this group was 38%, compared with 31% for people with a physical or other type of disability.