Disability price tag 2023 - the extra cost of disability

The latest report from the charity Scope into the additional cost of disability shows that disabled people continue to face significant and unfair extra costs.

The higher cost of specialist equipment, higher usage of everyday essentials and energy, and an inadequate welfare system, are all making it harder for disabled households to meet the huge extra cost of disability.

Scope defines extra costs as the additional amount of money a disabled household would need to have the same standard of living of a non-disabled household.

Their analysis shows that on average, disabled households (with at least one disabled adult or child) need an additional £975 a month to have the same standard of living as non-disabled households. The pressure on disabled households to meet the additional costs of disability makes it harder to have a good standard of living, harder to build savings, and it makes it much more difficult to plan for the future.

Scope last published figures for the extra cost of disability in 2019. Since then, there has been a global pandemic, a cost-of-living crisis, and high levels of inflation have caused soaring prices in the shops. These factors have had a huge impact on the lives of disabled people; more households have fallen into poverty and the number of disabled people out of work has increased.

Reversing this won’t be easy; Scope believes that addressing the Disability Price Tag and reducing the extra cost of disability requires concerted action and commitment from government, regulators and businesses to revise and deliver a welfare system which provides sufficient levels of support, and to make sure disabled households have fair and affordable access to essential services.

Find out more

More information about the additional costs of disability report can be found on the Scope website.