A new report focusing on people with disabilities is revealing the ‘devastating impact’ that the cost-of-living crisis is having on disabled people, prompting calls for immediate responses at all levels of government.

The Glasgow Centre for Population Health (GCPH) research group and co-authors the Glasgow Disability Alliance (GDA), say the findings paint a deeply concerning picture – with worsening poverty making it more difficult to live healthily.

The report combines a scoping review of relevant research studies with two focus groups of disabled people, to examine the impacts of the cost-of-living crisis on the health and wellbeing of disabled people.

Last year, the Poverty Alliance’s Policy and Parliamentary Officer, Ashley McLean shared with healthandcare.scot that money matters for poverty in health, reflecting on the worsening health inequalities with the cost-of-living crisis.

Now this new report highlights both poverty and increasing financial insecurity as creating a struggle for people to meet basic costs – leading to an inability to heat homes and some going hungry, while living in cold, sometimes damp conditions and not being able to have a nutritious diet, or going hungry, was reported to directly compromise the management of people’s health conditions.

The impacts seen ranged from disruption to medication routines to worsening symptoms and poorer pain management, to being unable to afford to charge essential equipment like powered wheelchairs, nebulisers or hoists.

Reflecting on how escalating costs are impacting on them, a disabled research participant shared:

“In this cost-of-living crisis I feel the guillotine above my head all the time, I feel it so vividly. Things [finances] were always tight before, and even through COVID, but this is different. I can’t get by, everything is so much more expensive, so much more. I have no room to move. It feels like you are condemned to a joyless life being disabled in this crisis.”

Feeling left behind

This week, Neil Gray, Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy wrote to the Scottish parliament’s Health and Social Care Commitee with an update on inclusive employability support, as it links to health.

While the No One Left Behind work is set to continue and Mr Gray wrote that this will provide person-centred support into work for disabled people, GCPH says the current cost-of-living crisis reflects a “bleak picture” for disabled people.

The GCPH and GDA report highlights the that deepening poverty is difficult to escape, and the distress that comes with this is ‘seriously corrosive’ to mental health and wellbeing.

Participants in the focus groups shared that, in addition to health, wellbeing and difficulties managing their conditions, they now have significantly less opportunity for socialising or enjoying hobbies. They also reported struggling to participate in their communities and together this impacts further eroded mental health. This resulted in a feeling of being forgotten or left behind by society.

Meanwhile, the researchers found from their evidence review of the literature that these impacts on disabled peoples’ lives span across Scotland and the UK but have not yet received adequate academic or policy attention.

Chris Harkins, lead author of the report and Public Health Programme Manager at GCPH says a significant proportion of the population are affected:

“Over one in five UK citizens are disabled, and within Glasgow, the figure is almost a quarter among working age people, rising to 64% in those over 65 years of age.

“Disability is part of being human, almost everyone will be disabled temporarily or permanently in their lives. Yet, disability in many ways remains a peripheral issue in society – a ‘them and us’ dichotomy based on stigma, discrimination, and disinterest.”

“For disabled people living in Glasgow to have unheated homes, to go hungry, and to have severely restricted opportunities to socialise and participate in their community paints a bleak picture of our society in 2023.”

The report calls for urgent and sustained action to support disabled people, including improving social security and ensuring benefits aim to reduce poverty and support independent living.

To do this, the authors recommend uprating in line with inflation, maximising access to existing social security and ensuring the social security system includes an awareness of individual circumstances and the hidden costs of disability.

They also recommend that the UK government works with energy providers to legislate for a Social Energy Tariff the provides discounted gas and electricity for disabled customers, particularly those who use more energy for their condition.

In April 2022, Carolynne Hunter told healthandcare.scot how the impact of the fuel crisis and rising bills for the bare essentials of her daughter Freya’s care and equipment needs had already reached unaffordable levels.

Over a year on, this report urges change at all levels of government and across public services to recognise and address the ‘significant additional and hidden costs of disability’.

Disability charity SCOPE estimates that on average in 2023, households with at least one disabled adult or child need an additional £975 a month to maintain the same standard of living as non-disabled households.

Chris Harkins added that living in unheated homes, going hungry and struggling to use assistance equipment as a disabled person is also a “direct violation” of human rights:

“These conditions are a direct result of policy choices, primarily a decade of austerity policy which we know has been devastating to the health of disabled people and lower income households.

“In terms of local and national government, disabled people must be considered a priority. As this report makes painfully clear, urgent action is essential.”

Hidden costs

Alongside direct impacts on their lives and health, disabled people reported the wider impact of the cost-of-living crisis on society and health services, with one participate sharing:

“There are many costs to this which I’ve not seen in the news or heard people speaking about. What price are the NHS paying for this? I have seen my GP much more, because of stuff we’ve spoken about, being cold, being stressed mainly for me, and how that impacts my [condition]. So, the crisis will be costing the NHS millions.

“If the disability payments are raised, we would also be spending more within the economy. It’s this [false] idea that if we get more money, we’d be squirrelling it away. No! We’d be spending more on the basic things we actually need – food, clothes, energy and so on, assistive things. The money doesn’t go down a black hole, it goes back into the economy and everyone benefits.”

Authors say mitigating immediate impacts of the cost-of-living crisis is vital but the underlying historical inequalities experienced by disabled people including the disproportionate impact of austerity policies must also be addressed.

Co-author Tressa Burke, CEO of Glasgow Disability Alliance, says national and local government policies have failed to address the interrelated nature of barriers stigma, exclusion, adding:

“Policies have not only failed to tackle disabled people’s poverty – they have increased poverty and widened inequalities. This is creating panic, lack of choices and sense of control, leading to a sense of hopelessness and despair in many cases.

“People who have never struggled with mental health are describing major impact on their sense of wellbeing due to being faced with impossible choices: not just between eating and heating but also being unable to charge essential lifesaving or enhancing equipment like nebulisers or powered wheelchairs – undermining health and mobility.

“In some cases, people have used their mobility PIP to pay for a car but now aren’t able to afford to put petrol in it, restricting social contact with family and friends and access to services.

“All of this requires urgent attention and immediate policy priority leading to actions. GDA understand what needs to be done and we urge Scottish government and local authorities to work with us, listen and act before it’s too late and more disabled people die.”

Read more: Unpaid carers “spiralling” in cost-of-living crisis; Can Scotland make health fairer?; Money matters for poverty and health; Analysis: Why people are left behind; Deprivation linked to frailty

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