Financial Inclusion: Families with Disabled Children. Understanding their financial needs

Financial Inclusion: Families with Disabled Children. Understanding their financial needs

Over the last two years, Social Finance worked with the Family Fund, Council for Disabled Children, Barnardo’s, Action for Children, KIDS, and others, to understand the financial needs of families with
disabled children in the UK.

We undertook two in-depth surveys and analysed the responses of
over 6,000 families with disabled children. This report presents a detailed picture of the financial challenges and barriers that they
face. It forms part of Social Finance’s work on financial inclusion.
Our research revealed that families with disabled children disproportionately struggle to access appropriate financial advice
and credit, have very low levels of savings to protect them against financial shocks and struggle to access appropriate benefits.

This paper presents our results in two ways: the first section describes key findings from our research, followed by a technical appendix with detailed survey data. It recommends steps to increase access to benefits, and the design and supply of financial services. Our survey responses have been weighted to be reflective of families with disabled children across the UK as a whole.

We hope that this report will encourage Government and the financial services industry to act to address their needs.