Contact calls for Universal Credit reform and social tariffs

2 mins read

Wednesday 12 March 2025

Contact is calling for Universal Credit fixes, social energy tariffs and investment in disabled children’s services ahead of the chancellor’s spring spending review.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves will set out spending plans on 26 March. Ahead of this, the treasury consulted interest groups, individuals, Members of Parliament and representative bodies on policy and spending ideas. Contact has submitted ways we want to see the government do more for families with disabled children.

Fix Universal Credit

Families with a disabled child are often at greater risk of being worse off under the benefit than other households. This is chiefly because additional Universal Credit amounts for disabled children are often lower than under the legacy benefits they are replacing.

We have highlighted a number of other ways that families with disabled children are losing out under Universal Credit.

Unlock Child Trust Funds

Many disabled young people who lack mental capacity are unable to access savings in their Child Trust Funds/Junior ISA.

This affects 80,000 disabled young people, and fixing this would release £210 million of savings.

If the government supported the industry initiative and extended the authority of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Appointee scheme, this issue could be efficiently resolved.

Work with energy companies to introduce discounted tariffs

Many families Contact supports use electrical medical equipment such as oxygen concentrators, ventilators, ceiling hoists and feeding pumps to keep their children alive and healthy. As energy prices soar, more and more families are struggling to pay their energy bills.

We are also calling on the government to create a national energy assistance payment to replace or supplement the inconsistent access to local NHS medical grants and reimbursement schemes.

Investment in support for disabled children through schools, social care and health

Research by Scope and the Disabled Children’s Partnership in 2021 found that the funding gap for disabled children’s health and social care had continued to increase to £2.1 billion. That’s an increase of over £500 million since our last calculation in 2016/17.

Addressing this funding gap would support disabled children and their families to get services and support that are not currently being delivered consistently across local areas, such as respite care, therapies, rehabilitation support, provision of medicines and in-home support.

Read our full submission

Download our full submission to the spending review consultation.