Draft Disability Assistance (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2023: draft child rights and wellbeing impact assessment

Scope of the CRWIA

Scope of the CRWIA, identifying the children and young people affected by the policy and summarising the evidence base

36. Consideration has been given to the impact of the policy on the rights and wellbeing of children and young people in Scotland. This policy should have a direct, positive impact on disabled children and young people, their families and carers.

37. The views of people with lived experience have been captured through the range of user research and stakeholder engagement activities outlined in the background section. These events have provided stakeholders the opportunity to feed into the early development of the principal policy being amended.

38. A recent report published by the Scottish Government^[3] found that the youngest adults had the highest poverty rates. Between 2017-20, 28% of young adults aged 16-24 were in relative poverty (140,000 adults each year), compared to 15% of adults aged 65 and older (150,000 adults). The age groups in between all had similar poverty rates between 17% and 19%.

39. In 2017-20, 28% of children aged four and under were in relative poverty (80,000 children each year). This compares to 22% (100,000 children) of the five to twelve year-olds, and 25% (60,000) of teenagers.^[4]

40. After housing costs, the poverty rate was 29% (640,000 people each year) for people living with a disabled household member, and 16% (500,000 people) for those without when disability benefits such as Disability Living Allowance, Attendance Allowance or Personal Independence Payment were excluded.^[5]

41. There is also a positive correlation between disability and unemployment. Recent statistics have found that, compared to non-disabled people in the UK (81.7%), disabled people had a significantly lower rate of employment (53.6%).^[6] In Scotland, 45.6% of disabled people were employed compared to 81.1% of non-disabled individuals.^[7]

42. 14% of 'workless families' (defined as families where parents are predominately out of work or have little connection to the labour market; 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.^[8] Child material deprivation in households containing a disabled person reaches 20% compared to 8% of households without a disabled person.^[9]

43. 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.

44. Disabled people face higher costs than non-disabled people, such as the cost of specialist equipment, therapies and home adaptations to manage a condition.^[10] 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).

45. By identifying the children and young people affected by the policy and summarising the evidence base, we are best able to make an assessment of the scale of impact this policy will have as well as helping us recognise the groups of individuals that would be most severely impacted. For example, as these regulations provide more financial certainty to families, this would have a positive impact on the significant proportion of 'workless families' with a disabled child as it would help them plan their finances.