MSE News: Guest comment: You don't have to pay more because you're disabled

Prinzessilein

Like others here I found the article insensitive in the extreme (and the timing is beyond belief - coming at the same time as the possibility of cuts to ESA!)


Yes, I get VAT off my walking aids...but I still had to buy them and they aint cheap even without the VAT!....but there are 'smaller' expenses too.....


I have little/no coordination and can't manage a standard tin-opener...I need a battery-operated type (which of course needs the extra expense of batteries every so often.


I need a pill dispenser for my meds - otherwise I can forget which I have taken.


I use adult bibs (it's the coordination again...my clothes get more porridge than my tum does some mornings....especially if I have just taken meds!)


Although I get free bus-travel (I have a disability pass) this doesn't mean I can get to the supermarket and do a shop alone....I need to be accompanied round the store - and then have help to get the shopping home....so I pay a lovely person to take me once a week in her car.


If I need to get to the hospital (a few times a year - minimum) then I need to pay for that....I use the 'Community Car' system.


Shoes!...I can only wear one type of shoe (unfeasibly wide feet!) and my balance means my gait is awkward so I am 'heavy on the left hand side' which wears down quickly...I need to have them resoled each year - and after the second time am usually told the sole is so thin it can't be done again....so need a new pair of shoes.


All these 'little' extras add up! (and without much effort I could have added a dozen or more 'little' things I need in my daily life)


Do people honestly believe we would CHOOSE to live this way?

Errata

My round trip to hospital this week cost £35!

stiltwalker

*Like* the one about getting a grant towards equipment - we have just been granted 80% (the maximum award) from charity towards the cost of a new specialist car seat for our son - the 20% that we have contributed ourselves is still at least twice, if not 3 times as much as a standard non specialist car seat would have cost us if he did not have a disability. This is just one example from the many we have experience - times it by 2 as both our children have the same rare genetic disorder and I'm sure you can see how much I disagree with the statement 'You don't have to pay more because you are disabled' in our experience, yes you do!

Indie_Kid

There aren't always grants avaliable either.

GlasweJen

The person who wrote the article is a twit.

Grants? Don't make me laugh - Id have better luck finding, for example a specialist mattress for people who have seizures, under a rock.

Indie_Kid

GlasweJen wrote: »

The person who wrote the article is a twit.

Grants? Don't make me laugh - Id have better luck finding, for example a specialist mattress for people who have seizures, under a rock.

And there's much less help when you're an adult, compared to the help you can get when you have a disabled child.

SandraScarlett

Has Emma Sterland been shown the responses on here? And what is her response?


xx

EmmaatScope

I am very sorry if this post has caused offence, as that was certainly not the intention. Perhaps it wasn't made clear enough in the article but, as it says, these tips have all been contributed by disabled people and their families via our online community. They are not my tips - they are suggestions that disabled people have made to support each other through what, we at Scope, know very well to be tough times - hence the Extra Costs Commission. I thought that sharing these tips on Money Saving Expert was a good idea as it might help other people. My intention was not to patronise or belittle the financial situation that a lot of disabled people and their families find themselves in. I know through personal experience how tough it can be.

Errata

SCOPE's online community is only one, there are many others and those who post on them will have a different perspective on costs. Someone with cancer won't be looking on the SCOPE website, they'll be looking at the websites of the many cancer charities and organisations eg MacMillan, Canceer Research.

Indie_Kid

Indeed.

I, like someone else mentioned earlier, would prefer somewhere where it tells you the benefits, discounts, etc you may get if you have a disability.

I have a feeling there's an old "bumper" thread on discounts.