Child Disability Payment Amendment Regulations: draft equality impact assessment

General Data

• The Scottish Health Survey 2018 provides an accurate estimate of the number of disabled children and young people in Scotland. Within the 0-15 age group, 18% of children have a limiting longstanding illness^[12]. For young people aged 16-24, 24% of young people have a limiting longstanding illness.
• In 2019, there were 867,345 children aged 15 and below in Scotland^[13]. As of August 2020, there were 41,811 children entitled to Disability Living Allowance for Children (DLAC)^[14]. This accounts for roughly 4.8% of this demographic.
• UK wide, disabled people have higher poverty rates than the general population. Disabled people make up 28% of people in poverty. A further 20% of people who are in poverty live in a household with a disabled child. In Scotland 410,000 households in poverty (42%) include a disabled person^[15]. Disabled young adults in the UK aged 16-24 years have a particularly high poverty rate of 44%^[16].
• Scotland-wide, there are higher levels of child material deprivation in households containing a disabled person, at 20% compared to households without a disabled person (at 8%). There are higher rates of food insecurity among disabled people (18%) compared to non-disabled people (5%). There is a higher likelihood of living in relative poverty after housing costs with a disabled person in the household (24% of families with a disabled person compared to 17% of families with no disabled members)^[17].
• Disability and unemployment/under-employment are positively correlated. 14% of ‘workless families’ (defined as families where parents are predominately out of work or have little connection to the labour market and/or who live in social rented accommodation and are reliant on benefits for their income) have one or more children with a disability or long-term illness. A further 17% of ‘struggling to get by’ families (unemployed or working part-time, half of which are single-parent families) have one or more children with a disability or long-term illness^[18]. Child material deprivation in households containing a disabled person reaches 20% compared to 8% of households without a disabled person.
• Even where one or more parent in the household is in employment, within families with a disabled child, the same level of income secures a lower standard of living than it would for a disabled person. Research conducted by the Papworth Trust^[19] showed that the annual cost of bringing up a disabled child is three times greater than for a non-disabled child. Disabled people face higher costs than non-disabled people, such as the cost of specialist equipment, therapies and home adaptations to manage a condition^[20]. Travel costs too, may be higher as families have to afford the cost of taxis to and from hospital where it is not possible to use public transport (and/or public transport may not be available).