Disability equality plan: part 2 - easy read

5. Our priorities – our most important work

Our 3 priorities are:

1. Giving disabled households more money.

2. Supporting disabled people to live independently so they can live full lives.

3. Making people’s mental health better.

Financial support for disabled households

Living costs for disabled people are higher than for people who are not disabled.

This means many disabled people do not have enough money to pay for basic things like food, heating or housing.

More disabled people are living in poverty.

Disabled people are not as likely to get good healthy food.

In 2024, 3 out of every 4 people who got food from Trussel Trust food banks were disabled.

41 thousand households with a disabled person have had to choose using medical equipment instead of eating a warm meal.

Disabled people find it harder to get the support and services that can:

• support them to deal with money problems
• improve health and wellbeing – feeling comfortable, safe and happy

We know that disabled people have things that make it difficult to get and keep a job including:

• workplaces that are not accessible
• extra costs to get to work like transport and social care
• being treated unfairly when they apply for a job, and in the workplace

We know that disabled people are more likely to have jobs that:

• do not have regular hours
• jobs that only pay the national minimum wage or less

Austerity made disabled people’s lives harder.

Austerity was the way the UK government cut the amount of money it gave to services we all use like schools, hospitals and councils.

The Disability Benefits Consortium found that the average disabled person now gets 1 thousand 200 pounds less a year in benefits.

The UK Government needs to work quickly to make Universal Credit better.

Universal Credit is money some people get from the government to live on.

The Scottish Government does not have power to do everything it wants.

Some powers and funds are held by the UK Government.

The Scottish Government spends 1 billion pounds more than the UK Government gives it for benefits.

This includes more than 3 hundred and 25 million pounds for disability payments.

Even though it is limited, the Scottish Government has:

• designed a new social security system built on fairness and respect
• offered 14 benefits
• spent 8 hundred and 50 million pounds more than last year

Actions

11. We will carry on the Social Security Independent Advocacy Service and make sure it is the best service it can be.

This is a free service to support disabled people to apply for benefits.

12. We will work on ways to check how many people are on disability benefits.

13. We will give an extra 2 million pounds to making this Disability Equality Plan happen.

14. We will help disabled people get to the services they need through things like:

• more Advice in Accessible Settings – this is where people can get advice in places they are already going to – like schools and hospitals
• the Cash First Programme – helping people with extra money so they do not need to use food banks
• DPOs working with advice organisations

15. DPOs are part of our Minimum Income Guarantee Expert Group.

This group is looking at ways to have a way to make sure everyone has a level of income to have a good standard of living and get the services that they need.

We will work with DPOs to make sure the report includes:

• the experiences of disabled people
• their ideas about how having this level of income could best support disabled people

16. We will work with energy companies, DPOs and other groups to see how people are helped with their energy bills.

We will encourage the UK government to have a social tariff – this means

cheaper energy costs for people on benefits.

Our new group has worked to show how this can happen.

17. At the same time we will work with energy organisations to tell more people about the things they can do to have lower energy bills.

18. We will make sure that the needs of disabled people are part of the Connecting Scotland programme.

Connecting Scotland is a Scottish Government programme to support everyone to get online.

We will work to better understand what makes it difficult for disabled people to be online.

Mental Health

Mental health means how well you feel and how you cope with everyday stresses.

Having poor mental health can be a disability.

People who have poor mental health can find it harder to get health care and can live shorter lives.

These things make it harder for disabled people to have good mental health:

• things not being fair or equal
• having to work harder to do things
• having less money

The Scottish Household Survey in 2022 found that 4 out of every 10 disabled people felt lonely.

This was twice as many as non-disabled people.

The Scottish Government has a plan called the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

The plan’s main aim is to see everyone in Scotland having the best mental health that they can.

And feeling as healthy as they can.

Actions

19. We have a new Delivery Plan to make mental health and wellbeing better.

The plan says we will do many things, like:

• ask patients questions about their health care experiences

• make sure that the staff who give mental health services have a wide range of skills and experiences

• make sure that human rights are a part of all our work

Human rights are the basic rights and freedoms that belong to everyone.

Independent Living

Independent living means having control of your own life and finding ways to look after yourself.

Disabled people should have these things:

• freedom
• choice
• control over their lives
• dignity – this means being seen as a whole person, with feelings and needs

We want to make sure that nothing stops people living a full and fair life.

We have opened the Independent Living Fund again.

This fund gives money to disabled people so that they can find the care and support they need to live more independently.

This money is helping nearly 3 thousand disabled people across Scotland.

We also have a Transition Fund.

In this document transition means moving from being a child to being an adult.

The Transition Fund gives money to disabled people who are between 16 years old and 25 years old.

The money is to help them take part in life and build new friendships and groups.

In 2024 to 2025 we are spending 2 billion more pounds on social care and integration. This includes disabled people.

Integration means making sure that different groups of people speak to each other to help support a disabled person.

There are changes planned to the new National Care Service Bill. But we want to carry on making social care better

A new Advisory Board group will keep this work going forwards successfully.

Actions

20. We will keep working closely with Independent Living Fund Scotland and other organisations to make it easier for people to get money from the fund.

21. The Scottish Government will work with COSLA to stop social care support charges for disabled people who live at home.

COSLA represents local councils in Scotland.

22. We will work with DPOs to make human rights stronger in everything we do.