Scotland: 77% of 'severely disadvantaged' families living in social housing

Published by Max Salsbury for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Communities, Finance, Health

A new report has estimated that up to 24,000 families in Scotland face severe disadvantages, of which 77% are currently living in social housing.

Think tank Demos conducted regional analysis of 28,000 households across Scotland whilst trying to identify seven indicators of disadvantage, which included overcrowding, worklessness and ill health.

Families that were discovered to be facing four or more indicators were deemed 'severely disadvantaged'.

Glasgow was found to be the area with the highest proportion of severely disadvantaged families, where 11% of those analysed suffered four or more disadvantages. The city was followed by South Lanarkshire (7%), North Lanarkshire (7%) and Fife (5%).

According to the research, unmarried households are six times more likely than married households to be severely disadvantaged, with 8.5% of unmarried households with children facing four or more disadvantages versus 1.4% of married households.

South Lanarkshire is the area with the highest inequality, as the percentage of families with either four or more disadvantages (7%) or none (58%) are both higher than the national average.

The research was funded by Quarriers, a charity that supports Scottish families. One of Quarriers' case studies focused on Katy, a single mother-of-two from Glasgow.The 24-year-old had left school with no qualifications and was suffering from depression.

Katy said: "I was heading on a downward spiral – I couldn’t see a way out at all. I was living in a cramped and damp ridden flat with two kids with another on the way, with no real prospects of a job or a future.”

Quarriers put Katy in touch with her local housing association which helped her secure a flat in a better area and with more rooms.

“When I moved into the new place I felt so much better,” she added. “I felt I could move on in life. I started to look into doing a college course as well as thinking about careers. It was amazing how small changes made me feel so much better about life.”

The seven indicators of disadvantage used by Demos were:

Low income: households with total net disposable income below 60% of median of all households in Scotland.
Worklessness: households where no one is in work.
No educational qualifications: households where the highest income householder has no educational qualifications.
Overcrowding: households with a bedroom allocation requirement higher than the number of actual bedrooms.
Ill health: households where someone has a health problem or disability (excluding mental health) that limits their daily activity.
Mental health problems: households where someone has a mental health illness that limits their daily activity.
Poor neighbourhood: households where the highest income householder rates their neighbourhood as a ‘fairly poor’ or ‘very poor’ place to live.

Louise Bazalgette, author of the report said: “This report goes beyond a simplistic understanding of disadvantage, recognising that hardship is about a lot more than low income. It provides insight into the struggle thousands of families across Scotland go through on a daily basis coping with poverty, worklessness and poor health.

“The extent of severe disadvantage in some areas of Scotland shows the scale of the challenge for some local authorities, who need to find effective ways to work with families facing a complex set of problems at a time of dwindling public resources.

“In upcoming research Demos will work closely with severely disadvantaged families and local support providers, to go beyond these headline figures and provide a better understanding of their lives.”

The Scottish Government admitted that the statistics were "worrying". A spokesman said: “It is absolutely imperative that the most vulnerable members of society are protected and cared for during these tough economic times.

“Yesterday, outlining how we will confront the damaging affects of the cuts, Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced the creation of a Scottish Welfare Fund, which replaces elements of the UK Government’s social fund.

"An additional £9 million will be allocated to our new fund next year offering an extra 100,000 vulnerable Scots financial help."