The impact of childhood disability on family life

This is the second report of a study funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation that explored the costs to parents of bringing up a child with a severe disability. The first report, Paying to Care(Dobson and Middleton, 1998), described a minimum budget standard, which is the minimum amount that parents believed to be necessary to bring up a child with severe disabilities. This report describes the actual spending patterns of parents on 182 children with severe disabilities, and presents a detailed examination of how much parents actually spend on bringing up a severely disabled child. Fieldwork was conducted during 1997–98 and so all figures presented have been up-rated to 2000 by the Retail Price Index

Disabled people’s costs of living : more than you would think

The purpose of this study was to investigate the additional needs and associated financial costs of disability from the perspective of disabled people themselves. The research took place at a time when it is recognised that disabled people have a range of additional needs and costs (Large, 1991) and have a disproportionate risk of poverty (Gordon, et al., 2000). However, research to date has not provided a clear measure of these additional costs (Berthoud, 1998). As a result, levels of nationally provided financial benefits and local services are predicated on limited evidence. Certain state benefits are meant to offset, at least partially, the additional costs associated with disability, but the extent to which these benefits meet additional needs and costs is unknown. Recently, ‘fairer charging’ policies for local authority domiciliary care have been introduced with the intention that service charges should take into account the additional costs that individuals incur because of disability. Clear guidance for determining these additional costs is proving elusive. The central aim of this research was to provide clear evidence on the extent of these additional costs

Evaluation of Education Maintenance Allowance Pilots : Leeds and London first year evidence

This report refers to findings from the first year of the EMA pilot in Leeds and London, which was September 1999 to August 2000

Education Maintenance Allowance Pilots for Vulnerable Young People and Childcare Pilots : implementation and reported impacts in the first year

The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) commissioned the Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP), the National Centre for Social Research (NCSR) and the Institute for Employment Research (IER) to evaluate the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) Pilots for Vulnerable Young People and Childcare Pilots. This report focuses on the first year of the EMA Pilots for Vulnerable Young People and Childcare Pilots. The analysis of implementation of these pilots draws on interviews with implementation groups and key informants and stakeholders. Eligible young people and their significant others also provide evidence of the impact as well as difficulties involved in the EMA Pilot for Vulnerable Young People and Childcare Pilots. The integrated evaluation that follows discusses the degree of flexibility and level of effectiveness of EMA in relation to vulnerable young people

Education Maintenance Allowance Pilots for Vulnerable Young People and Childcare Pilots : implementation and reported impacts in the first two years (2000-2001/2001-2002)

This is the second and final report of the evaluation of the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) Vulnerable Pilots. These pilots were introduced by the Department for Education and Employment (now the Department for Education and Skills) in 2000 and extended the scope of the main EMA pilots by focusing on young people believed to be especially vulnerable to economic and social exclusion in four LEA areas. The evaluation has focused on three specific groups of young people who were the original focus of the Vulnerable Pilots, young people who are homeless, teenage parents and young people with disabilities. The definition of ‘vulnerability’ has since been widened to encompass many more young people, such as young offenders and those who finish compulsory education with no or low qualifications