Compared with non-disabled people, disabled people are:
- more likely to live in poverty - the income of disabled people is, on average, less than half of that earned by non disabled people.
- less likely to have educational qualifications - disabled people are more likely to have no educational qualifications.
- more likely to be economically inactive - only one in two disabled people of working age are currently in employment, compared with four out of five non-disabled people.
- more likely to experience problems with hate crime or harassment - a quarter of all disabled people say that they have experienced hate crime or harassment, and this number rises to 47% of people with mental health conditions;
- more likely to experience problems with housing - nine out of ten families with disabled children have problems with their housing;
- more likely to experience problems with transport - the issue given most often by disabled people as their biggest challenge.
(Improving the life chances of disabled people, Prime Minister's Strategy Unit, 2005)