Training materials for teachers of learners with severe, profound and complex learning difficulties

(Based on: Strachan/Department for Education, 2011)

Strachan, G. (2011) 'The wider context'.

Children in poverty can face deprivation in every aspect of their lives...17% in the poorest fifth of households [reported]...low well-being [which] is associated with depression and anxiety, as well as hampering child outcomes, such as educational attainment.

For children with disabilities, the impact of poverty can be particularly severe. These children can face substantial additional costs, such as larger heating bills, higher travel costs, and a wide variety of other needs – as broad as the types of disability which can affect them.

The level of worklessness is much higher for households with disabled children, with 385 of disabled children living in workless households, compared to 165 of all children.

The Children's Society, 2011

Based on a sample of welfare recipient families in four counties in California, Lukemeyer et al (2000) found only 29 per cent of mothers caring for disabled or chronically ill children and 19 per cent of mothers caring for severely affected children were employed, compared to 39 per cent of mothers of healthy children (Stapleton et al, 2008).

Black and minority ethnic (BME) families with disabled children are more likely to experience poverty, worklessness or low status employment and less likely to report impairment than white families....Research carried out in 1999 found that fewer families from these communities were receiving disability benefits compared to white families with children with similar degrees of disability, and were less likely to be awarded Disability Living Allowance at the higher rate.

Contact a Family, 2006

[The] Welfare Reform Bill is nearing its final stage in parliament before it becomes law. From 2013, it will bring in a single monthly payment – known as a Universal Credit – which will replace a range of benefits.

The government says the most severely disabled children will receive more money under the changes.

The Children's Society says a new study it has carried out shows 320,000 disabled children in the UK live in poverty...where the income is less than 60% of the national average...nearly a third of the 320,000 live in "severe poverty" where the income is less than 40% of the average. It says the welfare changes could mean more families with disabled children fall below the poverty line.

Harrison, 2011