The cost of disability

r_bin294

I have one main gripe about society's treatment of the disabled and that is the prices that disability shops and the makers of disability equipment charge for essential items, as soon as the word disability/disabled is put in front of anything, the price doubles or even trebles. There are shops closing down on every high street but disability shops are springing up like weeds.One of the worst offenders is Millercare. I require new tyres for my Pride wheelchair, you can't deal with Pride direct, you have to deal with an agent, £75 per tyre plus fitting costs, you can buy them from China cheaper or e-bay. It just disgusts me and these shops should get the bad publicity they deserve.

Ami2301

Hi @r_bin294
Welcome to the community! Sorry to hear you feel this way. I completely agree that equipment can be expensive, however I am happy to buy items that are durable and good quality rather than poor quality which won't last five minutes. Weighing up the pros and cons...hard to decide. 

r_bin294

You don't have to compromise on quality. I have just purchased 2 tyres + new innertubes for £56 with free postage. They are manufactured by the same Chinese company as the ones offered me for £150 and they come with free innertubes and with a money back guarantee. I don't object to anybody making a profit but 84% is outrageous. We need a united effort by all the disabled organizations to stop this blatant expoitation.

Sam_Alumni

Welcome to the community @r_bin294
We did a report on the Disability Price Tag that found:

• On average, disabled people face extra costs of £570 a month related to their impairment or condition. This is on top of welfare payments designed to help meet these costs.
• One in five disabled people face extra costs of more than £1,000 a month.
• After housing costs, disabled people spend 49 per cent of their income on disability-related costs.

r_bin294

A good move would be to get all members to write to their MPs to lobby for us to be allowed to set the cost of any essential equipment or alterations to our properties against any income tax we incur. Simultaneously we could be campaigning against the profiteering by disability shops on Social Media via letters to newspapers, Facebook, Twitter, etc. I’m sure if Sarah Jane Mee on Sky news, for example, was bombarded with emails and tweets, she’d soon respond.

cracker

Yes, They do take advantage of our needs. I sometimes find that Amazon will offer  better deals.

We have here a few independent Disability Organization with funding to help with the assistive  devices. I wonder if such exist over there, or if church or other charity might help?