Natalie Don MSP
Convener
Social Justice and Social Security Committee

By email only

Dear Convenor,

During the Committee’s meeting on Thursday 9 February 2023 SCoSS agreed to confirm whether the Commission is aware of any plans to assess the real cost of living and additional costs faced by disabled people in Scotland.

We are aware of the Scottish Government’s The Cost of Living Crisis in Scotland: analytical report published on 2 November 2022. This report notes that household including disabled people are likely to be affected disproportionately negatively by the cost of living crisis and provides some analysis of underlying factors. Examples of further reports providing UK-wide commentary are in the Annex to this letter.

We are not aware of any current plans specifically focused on further analysis of the cost of living and/or additional costs faced by disabled people in Scotland.

We hope that this information is helpful to you.

Yours sincerely,

Judith Paterson Acting Co-Chair Scottish Commission on Social Security
Dr Mark Simpson Acting Co-Chair Scottish Commission on Social Security

1. The Office for National Statistics produced their Impact of increased cost of living on adults across Great Britain: June to September 2022 report on 25 October 2022, which notes that, of adults who paid energy bills and/or paid rent or mortgage payments respectively, disabled people were more likely to experience difficulties in affording their energy, rent or mortgage payments than non-disabled people.

2. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation produced their UK Poverty 2023 report on 26 January 2023, which provides analysis of poverty rates for disabled children, working-age adults and pensioners, and working-age and pension-age carers.

3. The Institute for Fiscal Studies produced their Living standards of working-age disability benefits recipients in the UK report in July 2022, which provides analysis regarding the higher rates of relative income poverty experienced by working-age people receiving disability benefits compared to all working-age adults.

4. The Resolution Foundation produced their Costly differences Living standards for working-age people with disabilities report in January 2023, which provides analysis regarding income gaps and the greater extent of cutting back on energy use and food expenditure by disabled people of working age in comparison to non-disabled people in the same cohort.