Modern Britain - children living in poverty - forgotten by the state !

Report out today has revealed:

Families with disabled children are living in poverty, they have been forced to take out loans to buy basic everyday essentials such as food and heating.

For those families where parents are in work, one in six say they cannot afford to heat their homes. For those families where parents are not working because of their caring responsibilities, almost a third (32%) have difficulty paying heating bills and almost a quarter (24%) told the survey that the extra costs of bringing up a disabled child meant they went without food.

The survey of 2,300 families conducted by the charity 'Contact a Family', which supports families with disabled children, shows that 58% of these families fear their financial situation will worsen over the next year, with 73% of them saying they believe welfare reforms will make them poorer.

The charity's 'Counting the Costs 2012' report gives a sharp insight into the extra financial pressures faced by families bringing up disabled children, at a time when changes to the welfare system, central and local government cuts and dwindling revenues to charities are making support harder to access.

The survey revealed, around 41% of families have fallen behind with payments for gas and electricity bills, council tax, rent and mortgage. Some 86% said they had gone without leisure activities and days out because of financial pressures. Of those families who had been forced into debt, 20% had taken out high-interest internet payday loans.

In the report parents highlight the rising popular hostility towards people with disabilities. "I am fed up with people accusing me of making my son's disability up. Some even go as far as to accuse us of having a wheelchair, not because he needs it but so I can scrounge off decent people. The negative comments and hostility have got a thousand times worse in my experience," says one parent quoted in the report.

Source & report by Charity 'Contact a Family - For Families With Disabled Children'

Blog by: Respect For the Unemployed & Benefit Claimants