What’s it like to live in Scotland as a Disabled Person in 2025
In recent years households across Scotland have faced a Global Pandemic, an Energy Crisis and a cost of living crisis. These events have seen disabled people make some very difficult choices about how they spend their money, pay their bills and maintain their personal independence.
In 2024, a majority of our members told us that they had to use some or all of their savings to pay their mortgage or rent in the last 18 months. Others told us that they have had to choose between eating, heating and using their independent living equipment. Regardless of your political standpoint or persuasion, it is really not a good time to be a disabled person in the United Kingdom.
In 2022 the cost of key essentials like food increased by 9.6% in the UK. For energy bills the rise was stark, with large increases in the wholesale energy price which was mirrored in the energy price cap with a 54% rise in April 2022. Disabled people face additional costs because of their impairments and previous research by Disability Equality Scotland shows that despite a £150 cost of living support payment, disabled people were worse off – in real terms – due to the rise in prices. By March 2024 this had led to the following impacts on disabled people:
- In the previous 18 months, 69% of respondents said they had used some, or all of their savings, to pay their mortgage or rent;
- 27% of respondents said they were very worried about being able to pay their rent/mortgage, with a further 17% being worried a lot of the time;
- 24% of respondents had used a food bank in the previous 18 months;
- 51% of respondents said they had to choose between heating their home or using their independent living equipment, prior to the January 2024 energy price cap rise;
- 37% of people sought advice from Citizen’s Advice Scotland or the Money Advice Service in the previous 18 months.
Our report does not attempt to put a price tag on people’s living costs as this will vary from person to person and the impairments they live with. Instead, we wanted to know the real-life impacts of the cost-of-living crisis on disabled people in Scotland in their own words.
Today we publish what we found out.
The results present a very challenging situation facing the disabled community as people don’t have the adaptions to the home they need or due to high household bills a third of all respondents are thinking about moving house.
More concerningly higher energy bills compounded by the additional costs of impairments meant over a quarter of disabled people told us they needed to choose between turning on their heating or using the equipment they need to maintain their independence and survive.
The most common bill disabled people found hard to pay was their energy bill. When measuring against the fuel poverty definitions set out in statute more than half of respondents would be defined as experiencing extreme fuel poverty as they had to spend 20% or more of their net income on their energy bills.
The recent changes to the winter fuel allowance have seen the choice between heating and eating made worse for older disabled people. When asked what the impact had been disabled people told us:
“I can’t heat the house to the temperature needed, this makes my conditions worse. I’ve also had to cut back on food in particular home cooked foods.”
“Had to cut back on other things like going out and buying fresh fruit and veg.”
These findings demonstrate clearly that the cost of living crisis continues to force disabled people into financial situations where they must choose between using the equipment they need to survive, putting food on the table and paying the bills. Our final report details these impacts and what disabled people believe needs to happen to address the cost of living challenges they face.
At present disabled people say their impairments cost them a lot of money and there is no end of this in sight.
For disabled people in Scotland it’s not just a cost of living crisis they face; it’s a cost of personal independence crisis.
No disabled person should have to choose between their personal independence or paying their bills- the onus is on the UK and Scottish Governments to make urgent changes to the economy and wider society so that it works for disabled people to maintain their independence.
Please take time to read our report.
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