{"id":143,"date":"2016-01-20T16:22:04","date_gmt":"2016-01-20T16:22:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/crsp\/?p=143"},"modified":"2016-01-20T16:22:04","modified_gmt":"2016-01-20T16:22:04","slug":"the-cost-of-living-with-sight-loss-is-higher-not-just-if-its-more-severe-but-also-if-youre-older","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/crsp\/2016\/01\/20\/the-cost-of-living-with-sight-loss-is-higher-not-just-if-its-more-severe-but-also-if-youre-older\/","title":{"rendered":"The cost of living with sight loss is higher not just if it\u2019s more severe but also if you\u2019re older"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our previous study for Thomas Pocklington Trust<\/a> began to look at the extra costs of living at a minimum acceptable standard for people with sight loss.\u00a0 It showed how for people of working age, being sight impaired adds around \u00a349 to a minimum weekly budget.\u00a0 This result was for the case of someone eligible to be certified as sight impaired, but not at a severe level \u2013 people with some usable sight. \u00a0We’ve now published a follow-on study looking at two things that can make the cost greater. \u00a0One is if you have little or no sight: a sight impairment rated as \u2019severe\u2019. \u00a0The other is if you\u2019re sight impaired as a pensioner. \u00a0These variations are important because vision impairment covers a broad spectrum of sight loss, and the likelihood of sight loss increases as we get older \u2013 1 in 5 people aged 75 and over are living with sight loss.<\/p>\n

Like the first study, this research used our Minimum Income Standard (MIS) to look at different groups\u2019 minimum living costs, by talking to members of these groups about what you need for a minimum acceptable standard of living. \u00a0This means more than just having enough for basic survival as it includes what you need to be able to participate in society, although is still based on needs<\/em>, not wants or luxuries \u2013 and what needs to be different because someone is vision impaired.<\/p>\n

We found that the severity of sight loss makes a large difference to the additional costs. Severe sight impairment brings \u00a3116 extra per week for a working age person, more than twice the \u00a349 in the previous study.\u00a0 Age also makes a difference \u2013 someone of pension age who is sight impaired faces an extra \u00a375 cost per week, around 50 per cent more than someone of working age with the same level of impairment.<\/p>\n

Looking behind these figures, there were similarities and differences in why severity of impairment or being older increases the additional costs of living with sight loss. \u00a0In several of the most costly budget areas there were common reasons such as paying more for help in the home to cover \u2018deep\u2019 cleaning, larger tasks and odd jobs on top of the basic two hours a fortnight cleaning included by working age sight impaired groups. \u00a0The greater degree of sight loss meant people could not see to do some of these tasks themselves, whereas for older groups it was deteriorating sight combined with less mobility that made these jobs harder to manage. \u00a0Another common addition was a larger budget for taxis for practical and confidence reasons \u2013 affected by both degree of impairment and age making using the bus harder, for example at night, busy times and on unfamiliar routes, and walking more difficult, especially if carrying things or going somewhere new.<\/p>\n

There were also differences in additional needs and costs. \u00a0This was most obvious in the additional cost of technology. \u00a0Sight-impaired pensioners only included half the additional cost of those of working age, whereas having severe sight impairment at working age increased the additional cost of technology by nearly half. \u00a0For working age people, less sight meant more reliance and heavier use of higher quality mobile phones and computers, with such technology being used in a more wide ranging way than by pension age groups \u2013 for communication, finding out information, entertainment and with mobile apps for scanning, magnifying and route finding. \u00a0The additional costs of social activities increased most for working age severely sight impaired people, to allow for more or specialist activities to cover the greater risk of isolation for someone with little or no sight. \u00a0Isolation is also very relevant to pension age people who have acquired sight loss later in life: they emphasised the emotional stress of becoming sight impaired. \u00a0In order to access information and support from sight loss organisations, they incur additional transport costs. This research is therefore proving valuable not just for pointing out that different disabled people\u2019s costs vary greatly (which is self-evident) but also for estimating the size of these differences. \u00a0Moreover, this methodology provides a qualitative backdrop to the costs and how they are made up. \u00a0This is important as it highlights how a lot of the costs are for things that might not be obvious.\u00a0 As with the first study, what came out of this research is that some of the things that people who are vision impaired agreed as being important are about more than just aids or equipment that directly addresses their sight loss. \u00a0Ranging from the additional cost of socialising to keeping your home neat and tidy, they represent the cost of being part of society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our previous study for Thomas Pocklington Trust began to look at the extra costs of living at a minimum acceptable standard for people with sight loss.\u00a0 It showed how for people of working age, being sight impaired adds around \u00a349 to a minimum weekly budget.\u00a0 This result was for the case of someone eligible to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":315,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3,10,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disability","category-living-standards","category-mis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/crsp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/crsp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/crsp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/crsp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/315"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/crsp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/crsp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/crsp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/crsp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/crsp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}