Child disability is linked to poverty

22 Mar 07
Benefits need to be made available for all disabled children and taken up by more families if the government is to eradicate child poverty by 2020, a leading think-tank has warned.

23 March 2007

Benefits need to be made available for all disabled children and taken up by more families if the government is to eradicate child poverty by 2020, a leading think-tank has warned.

The Institute for Public Policy Research this week highlighted a 'two-way relationship' between poverty and disability among British children – almost one third of households with disabled children live in poverty.

According to the IPPR's report, Disability 2020, published on March 19, 29% of households with one or more disabled children live in poverty, compared with 21% of households with no disabled children.

It also noted that if disability were to continue to increase at the rate it has done since 1975, more than 1.25 million children would be affected by 2029.

Kate Stanley, IPPR associate director and one of the report's authors, said: 'There is a two-way relationship between disability and poverty in childhood.

'Disabled children are among the most likely to experience poverty and poor children are more likely to become disabled than those who are better off. There needs to be a transformation in the quality and accessibility of services for disabled children, young people and their families.'

The Child Poverty Action Group said the IPPR's findings supported many of its own conclusions that many families were not receiving the benefits they were entitled to.

CPAG chief executive Kate Green said: 'The Treasury must review the benefit levels needed to meet the full extra costs of disability and take the opportunity provided by the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review to increase investment. Breaking the links between disability and poverty will be vital to meeting the chancellor's targets of halving child poverty by 2010 and ending it by 2020.'

A second report, published separately on March 19, called on central, regional and local government to streamline and co-ordinate their initiatives and focus on the goal of eliminating child poverty in London. The London Child Poverty Commission said current programmes lacked strategic co-ordination and evaluation.

Commission chair Carey Oppenheim said: 'London is a thriving world city, but its prosperity masks shockingly high rates of child poverty. This report shows that it is only by working across all tiers of government alongside other partners that we can make a lasting impact on child poverty in the capital.'

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