Although the government has announced a series of measures designed to ease financial pressures, disability charities say the new measures do not provide enough support for disabled people, who have been disproportionately affected by energy price rises.
In an open letter to the Prime Minister on 14 September, the Disability Poverty Campaign Group (DPCG), a countrywide coalition
led by DPOs (Disabled people’s organisations) and the Disability Benefits Consortium have urged the government to provide greater financial support for disabled people.
“We are writing to call your urgent attention to the devastating and intensifying levels of poverty faced by disabled people in the UK. Disability poverty rates are rising.Given this, we have a duty to convey to you in the strongest terms that the pressures created by rising energy and food costs, inadequate social security and rising social care costs must be met with robust, immediate action by your government if we are to avert a humanitarian crisis. Prime Minister, we remind you that in our country, nearly 50% of households in poverty have at least one disabled member.”
They say that disabled people are already rationing how often they use oxygen concentrators and turning off the heating—even in cases where the person is unable to regulate their own body temperature. “These forced choices will have catastrophic consequences,” the letter states.
Campaigners have also created a petition calling on the government to make disabled people eligible for the £650 one-off payment that has been announced for carers.
You can read an overview in this Learning disability Today article Will the government’s cost of living measures do enough to support disabled people this winter?
