Disability: Cost of Living

(asked on 13th March 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the report entitled the Disability Price Tag 2019, published by Scope in February 2019, what steps she plans to take to made additional funding available to cover potential extra costs incurred by disabled people; and if she will make a statement.


Answered by
Justin Tomlinson Portrait
Justin Tomlinson
This question was answered on 19th March 2019

The Department provides a range of benefits to support people with long term health conditions and disabilities, including benefits which contribute towards the extra costs they may face. Benefit provision is in addition to the wide range of additional support people with health conditions and disabilities may receive including from Local Authorities or the National Health Service.

Since 2010, spending on benefits to support disabled people and people with health conditions has increased by £8.4 billion (18%) in real terms. This year it will be over £54 billion, and next year it will rise to over £55 billion – over 2.5 per cent of GDP and 6 per cent of Government spending. And since 2010 spending on extra-costs disability benefits, which have been increased by inflation and have been protected from the benefits freeze, has increased by £5 billion (25%) in real terms.

As the Secretary of State recently announced, we also plan to commission independent research to understand the needs of disabled people and how health and disability benefits can better support them.

Reticulating Splines