Parents of disabled children lose £20k a year in income

PARENTS with disabled children are losing more than £20,000 a year on average from their family incomes after being forced to work reduced hours or quit their jobs to care for their kids, research shows.

- Matt Nixson

Disability charity Contact is calling for the Government's Child Poverty Strategy to recognise that families caring for children with physical or mental disabilities are being forced out of the labour market and into hardship.

Contact's Counting The Cost report shows 62% of parent carers have given up work or reduced hours - on average losing £21,174.

Together with rising energy bills, the cost-of-living crisis and the expense of getting a diagnosis, therapies and help at school, many families with disabled children are left in a precarious financial situation.