A quarter of working age disabled people, 2.8 million across the UK, are living in ‘deep poverty’, meaning they earn less than half the median national income, according to ‘Disability and Poverty Report’ by the New Policy Institute (NPI). Almost half of people in the UK living in poverty were either disabled themselves, or lived in a household with a disabled person.
Glasgow Disability Alliance (GDA), the largest disabled people’s membership organisation in the country, told CommonSpace that the report accurately reflects the experience of their members. “The NPI report evidences what disabled people across Glasgow and Scotland already know to be true, from our lived experience: that at any age, we face inequality, barriers and disadvantage across all areas of life.” The GDA spokeperson said: “Westminster’s inhumane and target-driven assessment regimes, for the support disabled people rely on, push many disabled people to desperation just to prove their entitlement, and destitution when they can’t reach the shifting goal posts. Rights that disabled people fought hard for are being eroded and denied, with the result that as a group we are pushed further into poverty and isolation.”
Twenty-six per cent of Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants sanctioned since the onset of austerity measures in 2010 were disabled people.
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