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Equipment for the Disabled Market Report 2009
Key Note Publications Ltd, Nov 2009, Pages: 87
According to the Office for Disability Issues, there are nearly 11 million disabled people in Great Britain, of whom 5 million are over state pension age and 800,000 are children. This estimate covers people who have a long-standing illness, disability or infirmity and who have significant difficulty in carrying out day-to-day activities. The number of disabled people has fluctuated somewhat during the current decade but the long-term trend is upwards, as the population ages.
This report estimates that the UK market for equipment for the disabled was worth just under £1.6bn in 2008, up from £1.43bn in 2004. This equipment accounted for just 0.5% of total UK retail sales in 2008. The market's value is very difficult to measure because of the diverse range of distribution channels, from the NHS to specialist retail outlets. Sales are highly fragmented: a wide range of equipment is on offer and there are many niche sectors in the market, which are served by hundreds of specialist companies.
Demand for equipment for the disabled is growing as the population ages and the number of people with disabilities increases. The industry is also benefiting from the growing sophistication of products and their increasing versatility. The trend towards care in the community has resulted in increasing numbers of disabled people living at home, creating demand for specialist aids and equipment. In addition, since the authorities are required to pay care-home fees only for those elderly people who have health problems, and since care-home fees can soon devour a person's savings, many people prefer to stay in their own homes for as long as possible — for financial as well as emotional reasons. There is a wide range of equipment that can help people stay at home, including stairlifts and small hoists.
Equipment for the disabled is distributed through a wide range of channels. The NHS is the largest supplier of equipment to users and it, in turn, is supplied by manufacturers and wholesalers. Other sources of equipment for the disabled include local authorities, clinics, care homes, healthcare centres and voluntary organisations. In addition, products can be bought directly from manufacturers, and items of equipment such as stairlifts, reclining seats and specialised furniture can be bought through shops, from agents, over the Internet and/or from catalogues.
The UK market for equipment for the disabled is likely to grow at well above the pace of inflation over the next 5 years, reflecting an increase in the size of the disabled population as the number of elderly people rises, as well as the growing sophistication and cost of this equipment. The main factor constraining growth is likely to be the need to contain spending on the NHS, owing to the weakness of the UK Government's finances.
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