There are over 11 million people in the UK with a long term illness, impairment or disability with the prevalence increasing with age; around 6% of children are disabled, compared to 16% of working age adults and 45% of adults over state pension age1.
Inequality
In 2012 46.3% of working age disabled people were employed compared to 76.4% of working age non-disabled people. As well as facing barriers to employment, disabled people are significantly more likely to experience unfair treatment at work than non-disabled people1.
Around a third of disabled people also experience difficulties related to their impairment in accessing public, commercial and leisure goods and services1.
UN Enable wants to challenge the inequality that can stop disabled people participating to their full ability in employment and wider society. They believe stigma and archaic attitudes about disability and people with disability are often the biggest barriers to equal participation in work and society. The theme for this year’s IDPD is ‘Inclusion matters: access and empowerment for people of all abilities’2.
State Support
Poverty is also higher in families with a disabled person, compared to people in families without a disabled person1. As state benefit reforms are likely to tighten further, the welfare safety net is less likely to protect disabled people who are feeling the impact of the UK government cuts.
We are supporting the 7 families campaign which is a charity-led project to raise public awareness of the financial impact of long term illness or disability. The campaign highlights that anyone can become disabled at any time through accident or illness.
What this means for you
As an adviser you know the importance of protecting your clients financially and that the message ‘it can happen to anyone’ can sometimes be difficult to get across as we all like to believe that it won’t happen to us.
To help you get this message across to your clients in a more personal realistic way, please have a look at our new tailored marketing solutions, which is packed full of powerful arguments that you can use with your clients to help make the case for protection, help you develop your client base and increase referrals. Because our marketing solutions are tailored for you it means you can adjust the message to suit your clients, your business and your own personal approach.
Sources:
1 www.gov.uk/government/publications/disability-facts-and-figures/disability-facts-and-figures
