By Jon Sands, Programme Officer at Resolve Poverty
The Money Advice Referral Tools (MARTs) are now available in seven Greater Manchester boroughs after the launch of the Bolton version in July. A key element in the development, and ongoing improvement, of the MARTs is the involvement of people with lived experience. As a result of this, one issue that the next set of improvements to the MART will focus on is ensuring that support in maximising their income is accessible regardless of any disability that person may have.
People with a disability are more likely to be struggling financially – they are less likely to be in work and disabled households face an average of £975 a month in extra costs (Scope). In addition, accessing support through the benefits system though is often difficult with only 42% of initial Personal Independence Payment (PIP) applications being successful (Gov.uk). The lengthy and complex PIP application process means that for many people it is difficult to succeed without advice and assistance. In addition of course, a person with a disability is just as likely to need assistance with other issues such as domestic abuse, addiction or debt.
Advice and support services for all of these issues are under severe pressure with demand for these services often greater than their capacity to provide assistance. For people with disabilities though, finding access to advice and support can be even more limited due to services inadvertently not being able to provide appropriate support for them. In many cases, disabled people opt out of support if the organisation cannot provide them with suitable assistance, or may not approach an organisation in the first place if they think that will be the case.
A March 2024 report by the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee on Accessibility of products and services to disabled people highlights how widespread this issue is. Their report concludes that products and services need to be inclusive by default rather than inclusivity being clumsily bolted on as an afterthought or not considered at all. For example, building accessibility into designing any communications through the considerate use of colour, good contrast and font size. The need to consider accessibility to services applies whether they are provided online or in person.
Mark Belcher from Henshaw’s Society for the Blind stresses that solutions don’t need to be complicated, and simple solutions are often better. For example, for a blind brail reader visiting a hospital, it is much simpler just to ask where a toilet is rather than having to find and feel a brail sign on every door.
Other inclusivity issues can result from lack of awareness. Michael Stead from Bolton Deaf Society highlights the issue of people who are hard of hearing. They often rely on a mixture of their limited hearing and lip reading meaning that they may struggle to understand what someone is saying in crowded or noisy areas. By simply being able to provide a quiet area to have a conversation an organisation can make things much easier for that person. Another example would be understanding that a deaf person might be able to communicate more easily with a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter and knowing how to arrange one.
Both Mark and Michael agree that awareness of the potential additional assistance a person may need, and how this could be provided, is key and this should be part of the culture of all service providers. The surest way to ensure that services are designed to meet an issue is to involve people with lived experience of that issue in its design. Both Bolton Deaf Society and Henshaw’s Society for the Blind provide disability awareness training and will audit existing services to help organisations identify areas in which they can make their services more accessible (as do many other disability-focused organisations).
As a result of this lived experience input, future iterations of the Money Advice Referral Tools will build in indicators of the assistance that organisations are able to provide for disabled people, so that they can quickly find appropriate and accessibly advice and support.
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This article is featured in our 16 October newsletter.
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