Reblogged from Kate Belgrave’s blog: https://www.katebelgrave.com/2015/06/and-so-the-dwp-washes-its-hands-of-the-independent-living-fund-meltdown/ Twitter: hangbitch
There are now just two weeks left until the Independent Living Fund closes.What a shambles this closure is.
The ILF is a fund that severely disabled people use to pay for the extra carer hours they need to live independent lives. But never mind that: the government will close the ILF on 30 June – a monumentally unpopular and unnecessary decision which disabled campaigners have fought since the closure was announced in 2012. With just two weeks to go, the thing is in meltdown. Some ILF recipients in England still don’t know if their councils will pay for the care that the ILF covered, especially in an ongoing way (ILF funding in England will be devolved to local authorities for just a year). You can imagine the distress this is causing disabled people and their families. You can read about thathere and here.
This 30 June closure was a coalition government decision out of the DWP, but you can forget about that lot taking responsibility for the distress and the mess. Government and the DWP have already washed their hands of it. The official line is that any problems with the ILF closure in England – and there are plenty, as I say – belong firmly to councils. We may as well note this for the record.
I asked the DWP about support it could offer to people who still hadn’t alternative care packages in place by 30 June, or who still didn’t know what would happen to their care when the ILF closed. The DWP didn’t quite say Don’t Bore Us With That, but it might as well have: from 30 June, the department said, “sole responsibility” in England for “former-ILF user” care lay with councils. No point making calls to the department in the meantime, either: “Any ILF user who has concerns about future funding from their local authority should contact the local authority directly.” Not Our Problem, in other words. Government has left the building. Disabled people and councils have been left to fight it out.
Disabled People Against Cuts and supporters will lobby MPs about the ILF closure on 24 June. Details here.
Video: Corrie stars back the Independent Living Fund:
Video: Disabled campaigners occupy Westminster Abbey in June 2014 to protest government plans to close the Independent Living Fund:
Picture: police stand on tents to stop disabled people setting up a Save The Independent Living Fund protest camp at Westminster Abbey last year.
Video: Independent Living Fund recipient Gabriel Pepper explains why he needs the extra carer hours that the ILF pays for. Gabriel has had three brain tumours. He is one of the ILF recipients who still isn’t sure if his council will meet all his care needs after 30 June.
So with cuts to elder care by cash strapped councils, now councils are expected to care for the disabled when their money is reducing year on year from government.
Over 40 per cent of disabled / chronic sick are over 50.
The next idea is tax at source both disability benefits and Attendance Allowance, so reducing them.
Over 40 per cent of Carer’s Allowance claimants might lose that benefit, when Universal Credit is nationally rolled out.
Housing benefit capped and Bedroom Tax kept.
Time to move to Scotland it appears.
Because the flat rate pension for those with a retirement on and from 6 April next year, 2016, is not a single tier but will be different for each person claiming it. The Housewife Pension is gone. The husband’s state pension could be vastly reduced, with lowest forecasts seen as £8.39 per week after 45 years in work. Pension Credit (savings) gone for new pensioners from next year.
FIGHT TO KEEP AT LEAST A DECENT PENSION OR ANY PENSION AT ALL
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now
The flat rate law will hit those living in England, Wales and Scotland alike.
Only Ulster has escaped the flat rate law coming in next year.