• 6.1 Costs for five daily living tasks combined
• 6.2 Grounds maintenance costs
• 6.3 Home maintenance costs

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Only 66 survey respondents (33% of those surveyed) reported any personal cost for paying helpers with any of the seven daily living tasks. Two of these costs have been incurred by a sufficient number of survey respondents to warrant separation for analysis, while the remaining five costs have been merged.

6.1 Costs for five daily living tasks combined

Only 18 survey respondents have a personal cost for at least one of the five combined daily living costs so there is not enough data to consider descriptive statistics for subgroups of the respondents based on any demographic variables. Three of these respondents had personal costs for two of the five tasks, while the other fifteen respondents had a cost for only one task. We estimate that 1314 members or approximately 12% of the membership have a personal cost for at least one of the five combined tasks. Survey respondents who had one of these five costs come from only 16 different demographic combinations which are given in Exhibit C6.2. From which it was found that:

1. An estimated 69% of all members with this cost are female, over 65 years old, vision impaired and not in employment.

2. Approximately 83% of all members with these cost are female and over 65 years old.

Other demographic factors that may affect the propensity for respondents to incur one of these five costs of daily living are given in Exhibits C6.3 to C6.4 and based on these, we estimate that:

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1. Nearly half (47%) of all members with this cost are thought to have a known annual household income of 10,000 to $29,999.

2. Just over 87% of all members with this cost live alone.

3. Approximately 46% of the members with this cost live alone and have a known annual household income of $10,000 to $29,999.

We can also state that:

1. All survey respondents with this cost that have an annual household income of less than $10,000 live alone. These members are also all female and over 65 years old.

2. Female survey respondents over the age of 65 with this cost that have an annual household income over $30,000 live with a partner and have no children.

6.2 Grounds maintenance costs

The 41 survey respondents with a personal cost for Grounds maintenance come from only 25 different demographic combinations, but represent an estimated 28% of the RNZFB membership. These demographic combinations are given in Exhibit C7.2. From which we estimate that:

1. approximately 58% of all members with this cost are vision impaired, over 65, female, not employed and of European ethnicity,

2. approximately 69% of all members with this cost are over 65, female, not employed and of European ethnicity,

3. approximately 69% of all members with this cost are vision impaired, over 65 and not employed.

Using figures given in greater detail in Exhibit C7.3 we estimate that:

1. Over half (54%) of all members with this cost have a known annual household income of $10,000 to $29,999.

2. Just over 57% of all members with this cost live alone.

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3. Just under 31% of the members with this cost live alone and have a known annual household income of $10,000 to $29,999.

4. Most of the RNZFB members with this cost that are vision impaired, over 65 and not in employment, live alone and have annual household income less than $30,000.

As there are only a total of 41 costs given, it is only possible to consider subgrouping by demographic variables separately. Our results show that :

1. When considering the difference in propensity between the blind and vision impaired groups to have a cost for grounds maintenance, we found that the apparent difference that exists is not statistically significant. (see Exhibit E1.1)

2. The propensity of having a personal Grounds cost for females (0.35) is significantly higher than males (0.17). (see Exhibit E1.2)

3. The propensity of having a personal Grounds cost for the 'Over 65' group (0.38) is significantly higher than the 'Between 18-65' group (0.1). (see Exhibit E1.3)

Exhibit E3.1 provides the number of survey respondents and weighted RNZFB membership for Grounds cost by annual household income. The five income groups greater than $30,000 have very small numbers of respondents in the survey and have been combined into one annual income group of '$30,000 upwards', resulting in Exhibit E3.2. The propensity for each household income group is significantly different, with the propensity decreasing with increasing income level. This can be seen in the graph of Exhibit E3.3

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Exhibit E3.2: Estimated propensity of having a Grounds cost by Annual Household Income group for Grounds

Exhibit E3.3: Bar chart of Annual Household Income groups estimated Propensity of having a cost for Grounds

6.3 Home maintenance costs

Using the data collected by Gravitas, we have estimated that 2874 RNZFB members have costs for home maintenance. Issues arise about the ability to attribute these costs to blindness directly, and to the quality of the estimates for the actual dollar values of the costs incurred and were discussed in a previous section of this presentation. Many of the 42 survey respondents that said they had a cost for household maintenance could not provide a cost. This is the only daily living task in which a survey respondent under 18 years old had a personal cost. These respondents

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fall into only 30 different demographic combinations, as shown in Exhibit C8.2. From these figures and those shown in Exhibits C8.1 and C8.3 we can estimate that:

1. Approximately 46% of all members with this cost are vision impaired, over 65, female, not employed and of European ethnicity.

2. Approximately 56% of all members with this cost are over 65, female, not employed and of European ethnicity.

3. Approximately 66% of all members with this cost are vision impaired, over 65 and not employed.

4. Approximately 78% of all members with this cost are over 65 and not employed.

5. Over half (51%) of all members with this cost have a known annual household income of $10,000 to $29,999.

6. Just over 46% of all members with this cost live alone.

7. Just over 28% of the members with this cost live alone and have a known annual household income of $10,000 to $29,999.

Given the small number of values for this cost, it is only possible to consider subgrouping by single demographic variables. From these investigations we found that:

1. The propensity for having a personal Maintenance cost for the 'Vision Impaired' group is significantly higher than the 'Blind' group.

2. The propensity of having a personal Maintenance cost for females is significantly higher than males.

3. The propensity of having a personal Maintenance cost for 'Not between 18-65' group is significantly higher than the 'Between 18-65' group.

The propensity to have a personal home Maintenance cost is the same for the annual household income groups $10,000 to $29,999 and $30,000 upwards, but both these are different to the less than $10,000 group.

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Suggesting that members from households with low income are not as likely to have a personal cost for home maintenance as members with larger household income. These propensities are shown in Exhibits E3.5 and E3.6.

Exhibit E3.5: Estimated propensity of having a Maintenance cost by Annual Household Income group

Exhibit E3.6: Bar chart of Annual Household Income groups estimated Propensity of having a cost for Maintenance

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