News today from the BBC: the Independent Living Fund which which supports more than 21,000 people with severe disabilities is to be shut down by 2015. The £359m Independent Living Fund pays out an average of £300 a week, to help people pay for carers so they can live at home and not in a care home.
Further reading:
26 July 2010 Statement about the ILF - Minister for Disabled People, Maria Miller MP
13 Dec 2010 – Disabled people get right to control services - Minister for Disabled People, Maria Miller MP
"Right to Control" is about increasing personalisation and is "a radical shake-up of the way disabled people use state funding, allowing them to buy their own support services or equipment" says the Minister. The Office for Disability Issues (ODI) has led the development of this policy. Today 5 "Right to Control" Trailblazers started - with Sheffield and Barnsley to be added on 1 March 2011.
13 Dec 2010 Consultation? The Community Care website reports the Minister as saying that "councils would be expected to provide for people who would otherwise have received ILF funding" and that "it was the government's priority to safeguard the position of existing ILF users and that it would consult next year on how their needs would be met in future, following the report of the government's Commission on the Funding of Care and Support.
12 Nov 2010 Better off in Work? Report of the Disability Alliance conference addressed by the Minister, including her speeech and Q&As.
