The Extra Costs Commission an independent enquiry into the extra costs incurred by disabled people and their families, produced their final report this week. We went to the press briefing where the Robin Hindle Fisher the chair of the commission called for disabled people to be “bold and loud” and build consumer pressure behind the ‘purple pound’ (I still prefer the ‘blue pound’ see our campaign here). A collective consumer group spending £212BN a year. What was really noticeable at the press conference was the absence of Justin Tomlinson MP the Minister for the Disabled – he obviously found something better to do.
He likened the spending power of the Purple Pound to that of the Pink Pound (which is actually of lower value) and urged that people adopt the ‘identity of disability’ as it’s just ‘another form of normal’. We agree as we’re the largest minority group in the world (1BN), and the treatment we receive would not be tolerated if we were Black or LGBT.
The areas identified where spend was greater and equated to the extra £550 per month paid by disabled people are:
- Energy
- Clothing & Bedding
- Disability Equipment
- Taxis & Private Hire Vehicles
- Insurance
Notably the average award for Disability Living Allowance or PIP is £360/month. A disparity and somewhat of a poverty trap in some circumstances.
Additionally on questioning 2500 people and 85 businesses they found that:
- Three quarters (75%) of disabled people and their families have left a shop or business because of poor customer service and a lack of disability awareness
- Those businesses are missing out on their share of £420 million of revenue a week
- The “purple pound” is worth £212 billion – yet it is often overlooked by business
- Six in ten businesses surveyed said that they would benefit from better information about disabled people’s consumer habits and preferences
- Disabled people rate friendly and helpful staff (71%) and good accessibility (55%) as most important factors when shopping
We’re sure our readers know this but what were the recommendations?? Well the Commission called on the following groups to take action
- Disabled people to be ‘bold and loud’ and build consumer power behind the purple pound by:
- Sharing good and bad shopping experiences with other disabled people through online disability communities and forums
- Demanding more as consumers, being prepared to speak out when they are dissatisfied with a company that doesn’t fully meet their needs
- Feeling able to be proud about disability in consumer situations, and use this identity to attract the interest of businesses so that over time, the costs of marketing to disabled people drop
- Disability organisations to improve information and services to disabled people and businesses to allow them to drive down the extra costs of disability
- Social Enterprise Nimbus; a disability related consultancy, plans to take forward a Commission recommendation by developing their Access Card that allows users to get discounts, offers and incentives from a wide range of service providers and retailers
- Businesses to improve the customer experience of disabled people and recognise the power of the purple pound
- That includes data capture techniques and relationships with disability organisations to reach disabled people and learn more about their needs. For example, a company with expertise in supplying goods to disabled people – Really Useful Stuff– will work with other business partners to look at how market data and can extend the reach and proposition businesses have to disabled consumers
- Regulators and government need to consider disabled people as a key stakeholder group, and should intervene where features of markets result in unfair extra costs for disabled people
- For example the Commission recommends that the Government should adopt Law Commission proposals on taxi and private hire vehicles to ensure disabled people get a more equal and fairly-priced service
All good but our more pragmatic and immediate recommendations are:
- If there are insufficient disabled facilities at a venue don’t pay the service charge
- There should be a Business Rate surcharge on businesses where there are insufficient disabled facilities in their premises – ‘reasonable’ clause &/or Listed Building or not!!
What does anyone else think? Leave a reply.