Press Release

Scottish social exclusion report finds one in three disabled people in poverty

5 December 2005

One in three disabled adults of working age in Scotland is living in poverty - double the rate for adults without disabilities and above the poverty rate for either pensioners or children, according to a report by the New Policy Institute think tank carried out for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Disabled people are being kept in the grip of poverty by high levels of joblessness, despite the fact that a third of those who are not working have declared they would do so if they were given the chance. Their out-of-work benefits have also been rising at a much slower rate than average earnings.

Guy Palmer, Director of the New Policy Institute and co-author of the report, said: "Benefit levels are in the hands of the Westminster government, but it is up to the Scottish Parliament and the Executive to make its social inclusion and equality agendas a reality by effective measures that ensure that disabled people who want to work can do so."

"Even if they find work, disabled people are more likely to be low paid than their non-disabled counterparts. This points to an employment market in which discrimination effectively operates."

Monitoring poverty and social exclusion in Scotland 2005 - the latest in an annual series tracking 40 different indicators of social exclusion - also emphasises that being in a job is no guarantee of a rescue from poverty. Two-fifths of all children and working-age adults living in poverty in Scotland are in households where someone is in paid work.

Throughout Scotland, 30 per cent of all workers - over half a million people - were paid less than £6.50 a hour in 2004. This level is above the UK government’s minimum wage rate, but below the threshold recommended by the independent Scottish Low Pay Unit. Among them, half of all part-time workers earned less than £6.50 per hour, most of them women.

Peter Kenway, co-author of the report, said: "Low pay is a major cause of poverty in Scotland and a good look needs to be taken at the current labour market. Many jobs are not only low-paid and part-time, but are also insecure or temporary with little or no pension entitlement."

Among other key findings in the 2005 analysis:

1. Almost a half of all lone parents are living in poverty: three times the rate for couples with children.
2. Working-aged adults without dependants now make up a third of all those living in poverty. Their numbers have increased from 300,000 in the mid-1990s to almost 400,000 in recent years.
3. The chances of being low paid are linked to educational qualifications. Last year, adults aged 25 to 50 without any Higher grades had a one in two chance of earning less than £6.50 an hour.
4. Geographic patterns of low pay are very different from those of worklessness. The latter is highest in Glasgow, West Dunbartonshire, Inverclyde and Dundee. Low pay rates are highest in the Scottish Borders, Moray, Dumfries and Galloway and West Dunbartonshire. The four cities (Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee) have average to below average levels of low paid workers.
5. Scotland’s health is worse than either the rest of Great Britain or Europe on a range of indicators, from premature deaths to dental health amongst children. Within this there are also substantial inequalities between different parts of Scotland and between different groups within the population.