A new IHC report reveals that New Zealanders with an intellectual disability are twice as likely to live in hardship or severe hardship compared to the rest of the population.
IHC Advocate Shara Turner says the report, The Cost of Exclusion: Hardship and People with Intellectual Disability in New Zealand, shows this is a deep, systemic issue.
“The cost of disability is real and it’s falling entirely on individuals and families who are often excluded from work, transport and even food.
“It is not acceptable that people with intellectual disabilities can’t afford a healthy diet.
“It’s also unacceptable that this is not part of national conversations on poverty.
“We need to include intellectual disability in all poverty tracking and public reporting. We need to adjust income support to reflect the true cost of disability and to build joined-up systems that recognise the long-term, cross-sector disadvantage disabled people experience.”
The report shows that people with intellectual disability face significantly higher rates of hardship at every stage of life:
Hardship is twice as likely for people with an intellectual disability under 40 and almost three times as likely for those aged 40-64 compared to others
Severe hardship rates triple in middle age, even as they decline for the rest of the population
Nearly 50% of people with intellectual disability cannot pay an unavoidable bill within a month without borrowing (vs. 18% of others)
They are over four times more likely to go without a meal with meat (or vegetarian protein equivalent) every second day
They are almost three times more likely to cut back on fresh fruit and vegetables due to cost
Nearly 30% of children with intellectual disability can’t have fri
