A new report launched by Inclusion London reveals the profound barriers to equality faced by Deaf and disabled Londoners and the ways in which inequality and poverty will be deepened if the coalition government’s programme of £81 billion spending cuts is implemented. The study for Inclusion London, carried out by the Office for Public Management (OPM), is based on fresh analyses of national datasets and a review of the wider evidence base.

20/06/2011

The report was commissioned from the Office for Public Management (OPM) for Inclusion London and is the second stage of an evidence base about Deaf and disabled people in London today. The first report – All in this Together? – was published in March.

The report reveals the barriers faced by disabled Londoners – who number around 1.4 million people – and how these are getting worse. Key facts include that:

• Disabled people in London are more than twice as likely as non-disabled people to believe they have been discriminated against when having been refused or turned down for a job or when seeking promotion.
• Disabled people are likely to be paid less than non-disabled people: average net weekly pay and average gross hourly pay are both significantly lower.
• Disabled Londoners are more than three times as likely as non-disabled people to report that issues relating to transport have prevented them from taking up a new job and are twice as likely as other people to report that they are rarely or never treated with respect when using public transport.
• The proportion of adults supported to live independently through social services in London fell between 2008/9 and 2009/10. At the same time, disabled people in London who live in residential homes are much more likely to live quite far from their home community compared to disabled people outside of London.
• Pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEN) are more likely to be excluded than children without SEN.
• Disabled people in London are more worried than non-disabled people about becoming the victim of crime and report high levels of hostility because of their disability.
• Metropolitan police figures show a tripling of reports of hate crime against disabled Londoners in the past five years but the conviction rate in London for disability hate crime is much lower than the national rate.
• Disabled Londoners are much less likely than non-disabled people to have participated in cultural activities like going to the cinema or museums.
• Disabled Londoners are more likely to live in rented accommodation, more likely to rent from the council and more likely to be receiving housing benefit – figures that reflect the greater vulnerability of disabled Londoners to planned housing benefit and housing policy changes.

You can download the full report and the first report from the column on the right hand side.