Disability and poverty

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Disability and lone parenthood, from Together Magazine issue 4

The link between disability and poverty is well established. Families with disabled children are not only more likely to be poor because parents find it harder to work and earn a good living, but poor families are more likely to have chronically sick or disabled children.1

Poor nutrition, inadequate housing, a greater dependency on benefits and vulnerability to poor educational and health service provision, are just some of the reasons why such families are susceptible to poverty and ill-health.

The stress and strain of coping with disability without adequate support not only takes its toll on a parent or carer’s health but on relationships too.

The link between disability and lone parenthood is clear. Single parents are more likely to have a child with a disability than couple parents: 3 in 10 lone parents (29 per cent) have a sick or disabled child. Five per cent have two or more children with a health problem, and 7 per cent care for someone with an illness or disability.2

As the 2002 Family and Children Study shows, longstanding illnesses or disabilities are higher among mothers living in lone-parent families than among couple families (16 per cent as opposed to 9 per cent). Problems are particularly acute in families who have two or more disabled children.3

1 Roberts, H (2000) What Works in Reducing Inequalities in Child Health, Barnardo’s, for Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

2 Barnes, Matt et al (2004), Families and Children in Britain: Findings from the 2002 Families and Children Study (FACS), Department of Work and Pensions, Research Report 206

3 Lawson, Dot (1998) Complex Numbers: Families with More than One Disabled Child, SPRU, Social Policy SPRU, Social Policy Child Report and Tozer, Rosemary (1999) At the Double: Supporting Families with Two or More Severely Disabled Children, JRF & National Children’s Bureau

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Lone parents caring for a child with a disability or long- term health problem

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