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3 December 2004 - Estimate of the annual spending power of adults in Britain covered by the disability discrimination act (1995)

The Department for Work and Pensions has adopted an estimate of the annual spending power of adults in Britain covered by the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) of around £80 billion per year.

The estimate of spending power uses numbers of disabled adults covered by the DDA and Individual Incomes data from the Family Resources Survey 2002/03.

Notes for editors

  1. The measure of spending power used is similar to the methodology used in the Women and Equality Unit’s (WEU) ‘Individual Incomes’ publication, produced for the WEU by DWP analysts. This methodology was developed in 1999 for data going back to 1996/97.
  2. Spending power for disabled adults has been estimated using Family Resources data for 2002/03 and is defined as ‘annual spending power summed across all adults defined as disabled using the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) measure of disability.
  3. Spending power is defined as ‘Income from all sources received by an individual including earnings, tax credits, investments and occupational pensions/annuities, benefit income (including child benefit and income related benefits), and income from other sources (including maintenance income from an absent partner paid in respect of either spouse or children)’.
    • less income tax payments and National Insurance contributions
    • plus Housing Benefit/Council Tax Benefit payments, apportioned across household adults where appropriate
    • plus income from letting or sub-letting, apportioned across household adults where appropriate
    • less housing costs, apportioned across household adults where appropriate
    Housing costs include the following:
    • Domestic rates/Council Tax (gross of Council Tax Benefit)
    • Rent (gross of Housing Benefit)
    • Mortgage interest rates (net of tax relief)
    • Structural insurance premiums (for owner occupiers)
    • Ground rent and service charges

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