Third, the results highlight that the relative size of additional costs associated with each level of sight impairment differs at different life stages. At working age, the initial increase between the Main MIS (sighted) budget and the sight impaired case is outweighed by a larger increase between this and the severely sight impaired budget. Conversely when looking at pension age, most increase in the budget is observed between the Main MIS (sighted) and the sight impaired case, with a further but not so large increase between being sight impaired and severely sight impaired. This suggests that in some respects, a lower level of impairment can trigger more substantial costs for people of pension age who acquired sight loss in later adult life than for working age people who are experiencing being sight impaired at an earlier age (£27.49 difference), but that the gap between the cost of additional needs of these two groups is less at the more severe level of impairment (£15.18 difference). Figure 4 (below), shows in a graph that overall additional costs are greater for pension age than for working age in both sight impaired and severely sight impaired cases, but the difference between the cost of being sight impaired and severely sight impaired is greater for working age people. Figure 4 Total weekly additional costs of sight impairment and severe sight impairment for people of working age and pension age
Third, the results highlight that the relative size of additional costs associated with each level of sight impairment differs at different life stages. At working age, the initial increase between the Main MIS (sighted) budget and the sight impaired case is outweighed by a larger increase between this and the severely sight impaired budget. Conversely when looking at pension age, most increase in the budget is observed between the Main MIS (sighted) and the sight impaired case, with a further but not so large increase between being sight impaired and severely sight impaired. This suggests that in some respects, a lower level of impairment can trigger more substantial costs for people of pension age who acquired sight loss in later adult life than for working age people who are experiencing being sight impaired at an earlier age (£27.49 difference), but that the gap between the cost of additional needs of these two groups is less at the more severe level of impairment (£15.18 difference). Figure 4 (below), shows in a graph that overall additional costs are greater for pension age than for working age in both sight impaired and severely sight impaired cases, but the difference between the cost of being sight impaired and severely sight impaired is greater for working age people. Figure 4 Total weekly additional costs of sight impairment and severe sight impairment for people of working age and pension age