{"id":3613,"date":"2022-10-05T13:44:51","date_gmt":"2022-10-05T12:44:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.familyfund.org.uk\/?p=3613"},"modified":"2025-05-30T16:38:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T15:38:00","slug":"report-reveals-families-raising-disabled-children-struggling-to-survive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.familyfund.org.uk\/news\/report-reveals-families-raising-disabled-children-struggling-to-survive\/","title":{"rendered":"Report reveals families raising disabled children are struggling to survive"},"content":{"rendered":"

“The cost of caring” polled 4,264 families with a disabled or seriously ill child, to find that nine in 10 families are struggling, or falling behind on their regular household bills. Many are forced to forego living essentials such as food, heating, basic furniture like beds, flooring, washing machines and fridges, to try to make ends meet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Black<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Over half of parents and carers (54%) report skipping or cutting the size of their meals because there wasn’t enough money for food. More than one in ten (13%) say they’ve had to cut back on essential items for their disabled children. Four in five (83%) are in debt, with rising debt levels for two in five families (43%). Over 40% report they can’t afford to keep accommodation warm – a 13% increase since last December. One in five families report taking on more credit to keep up with existing credit commitments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new report highlights the unsustainable strain on families raising disabled and seriously ill children and young people, as they try to cover sky-high costs on top of severely reduced incomes due to intense caring responsibilities, three times higher costs to look after a disabled child and critical levels of debt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cheryl Ward, Family Fund Chief Executive commented on the report:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

“The outlook for families raising a disabled, or seriously ill, child is now graver than ever. They are unsure how to cope with ever-rising caring costs with winter approaching, they are having to borrow more credit to pay for intense levels of debt and feeling more isolated than ever, with worsening mental and physical health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“These are families on the lowest of incomes, due to caring for their children round-the-clock and having far-reduced available support services, post-pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

“When caring costs have spiralled so far out of control that families are having to cut back on the very essentials their disabled child needs, something has to change.<\/p>\nCheryl Ward, Family Fund Chief Executive<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

“Along with our sector partners, we are urging Government to ensure that family benefits are increased in line with inflation, rather than reducing at a time when the escalating costs of caring are already jeopardising families’ lives.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n \n\n Read the full cost of caring report\n <\/a>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n Read personal cost of living stories here\n <\/a>\n\n\n\n

How we are supporting families<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We provide essential grants and services for families, including white goods, clothing, bedding, play and sensory equipment, much-needed family breaks and information and support on finances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year,  Family Fund Group delivered over 170,919 grants and services, worth over £37 million, to families on low incomes across the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cost of caring report features research from four quarterly family polls, from September 2021 to June 2022.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our new research shows that UK families raising disabled, or seriously ill, children and young people are now facing serious financial jeopardy and struggling to survive, due to the scale of the cost-of-living crisis. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_mixd_wp_review_post_reminders":[],"_mixd_wp_review_date":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"class_list":["post-3613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nReport reveals families raising disabled children are struggling to survive - Family Fund<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Our Cost of Caring research shows that families raising disabled children are struggling to survive due to the cost-of-living crisis.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.familyfund.org.uk\/news\/report-reveals-families-raising-disabled-children-struggling-to-survive\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Report reveals families raising disabled children are struggling to survive - 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