The pandemic has left some of Scotland’s most vulnerable children and their families facing a spiral of debt, a lack of health support and falling levels of education.
Several charities have told the Sunday Mail how disabled youngsters have been hit hardest by coronavirus and lockdowns.
And one warned it had seen an increase in families taking out personal loans to pay bills.
Salena Begley, of Family Fund, whose new findings paint a bleak picture, said: “Parents and carers have said there has been a sense of them being forgotten.
“Families have said the additional planning that was required to support disabled children in the face of the pandemic simply did not happen. One family told us very early on that ‘we are alone’.”
Begley added: “It’s been extremely challenging year for families with disabled children. And it is clear it is going to take a lot of time to recover.
“Today, some families across Scotland will be thinking of booking a holiday or going to the pub as restrictions ease.
“But families with disabled children are worrying if they can afford to keep a roof over their heads.”
Raising disabled children costs three times as much as non-disabled children, studies have found.
The pandemic has seen some of those struggling families turn to loans or fail to pay other bills to try to make ends meet.
Nearly two out of three families with disabled children interviewed in February said they had seen household and personal debt increase in the past year.
And half have seen their income reduced in the past year by £200 per month.
One in five told researchers they were getting fewer hours at work because of the pandemic.
Another 20 per cent said they had to stop working to become full-time carers for their disabled children.
The report said: “The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the support families raising disabled or seriously ill children and young people receive has been substantial.
“In some cases it has exacerbated an already difficult situation that families were facing before the start of the pandemic.”
The report found the situation was compounded by rising household bills such as food and energy costs.
Nine out of 10 families said they were falling behind in paying arrears with 70 per cent turning to personal loans.
And half said they had fallen behind in council tax payments.
The charity found levels of care and support had worsened since fresh lockdown measures were introduced in January.
Other organisations have warned of the impact of the pandemic on disabled children’s lives and how they have been left feeling abandoned.
A report by Edinburgh-based Inclusion Scotland warned: “Some disabled people’s lives changed dramatically and almost instantaneously when the country went into lockdown.
“People who have spent years organising and managing their own care and support (and often fighting for access to it) lost it overnight as authorities had little or no backup plans in place.
“This has had a considerable emotional impact on people who felt abandoned by services at a time when they were most needed.”
The Scottish Commission for People with Learning Disabilities (SCLD) said access to support and service had collapsed during the pandemic.
The Scottish Government-backed organisation said it feared services might never restart.
Kenneth Fleming, of the SCLD, said: “Children with additional support needs have been more impacted than other children.
“Support by councils has been suspended. Not just schools but things like respite care too. Even with lockdown measures lifting, the services have either been brought back at a reduced capacity or not at all.
“There are real fears that the support packages might never recover.
“There could be an argument put forward that since families coped during the pandemic they can continue to cope without the services. That is a really big worry.
“For us, these sort of support packages are a human rights issue and as a country we need to find the money.”
Gina Wilson, head of strategy for the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland, said: “The Covid-19 pandemic has been a human rights crisis affecting all children, but disabled children have been disproportionately affected by the public health restrictions.
“As we move out of the pandemic the human rights of disabled children must be a key part of the recovery with services and care resumed as quickly as possible.”
A spokesman for the Scottish Government said they could not comment due to the forthcoming election.
But he added: “As we have previously stated in the updated report A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People, we know that Covid-19 has worsened already existing inequalities.”
