Paying to care: the financial and social impact of childhood disability on family life

The benefits system recognises that both disabled adults and children incur extra costs because of their disability. Yet little is known about the nature and extent of these costs, particularly for children. This thesis discusses the financial, social and emotional costs to parents of bringing up a child with a severe disability. A total of thirty-six focus group discussions were held with approximately 300 parents of severely disabled children. During these group discussions parents negotiated and agreed the minimum essential costs of bringing up a child with a severe disability. These data were used to construct budget standards, which were used to compare parents actual spending on disabled children and to investigate whether parents were able to afford to meet the budget standard. All the figures in this report have been up-rated by the Retail Price Index to year 2000 figures. [Continues.]