Counting the Costs campaign calls for urgent action

Date: 9th December 2014
Category: Disabled children

Contact a Family are calling for urgent action to address the shocking findings of their Counting the Costs 2014 survey, including disabled children and their families being forced to go without food and heating because of rising bills and benefit cuts.

More than 320 Scottish families responded to the survey, and:

• over a third are going without heating in Scotland;
• almost a third are going without food;
• over 60 per cent have suffered ill health as a result, and
• 21 percent say their child's health has worsened.

Download key findings of the Scottish families surveyed as part of the UK wide Contact a Family's Counting the Costs research here.

 

Contact a Family ask that you help to take action in Scotland by:-

• sending a campaign email to your MP helping to put pressure on the UK government to increase access to financial support and work;
• support Contact a Family's call on all energy companies to offer a fairer deal to households with disabled children, and
• encourage families with disabled children to get in touch with Contact a Family for benefits advice by calling the free helpline 0800 808 3555 or visiting the website www.cafamily.org.uk.

Find out more about how to get involved here.

 

Contact a Family were interviewed by the Daily Record and an article was published on 25th November 2014, along with two case studies illuminating some of the findings of the Counting the Costs 2014 Survey.

• Read the Daily Record article here.

UK Governments are required under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) to recognise the right of every child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health including provision of adequate nutritious foods. (Article 24) They are also required to ensure the right of every child to a standard of living adequate for the child's physical, mental and social development (Article 27).

In addition, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended the following to the UK in its 2008 Concluding Observations: "When necessary, besides giving full support to parents or others responsible for the child, intensify its efforts to provide material assistance and support programmes for children, particularly with regard to nutrition, clothing and housing."

You can find out more about the rights of disabled children and access to their rights under Article 24 and 27 of the UNCRC in Together's 2014 State of Children's Rights in Scotland report.