2 replies to this topic

[Apparelyzed]

Help save the Independent Living Fund

On the 1st May 2010 the Government closed the ILF to any new applicants to ensure they could continue to support those already receiving the fund. In December, the Minister for Disabled People - Maria Miller MP - issued a statement on the future of the ILF.

In the Minister's statement she announced that this situation will now be made permanent and that ILF will exclusively fund those who are lucky enough to already be in receipt of ILF payments. She states that the Government will safeguard the fund for current recipients for the remainder of this Parliament. However, although this may seem a positive sign, it bodes ominously for the future of the fund as of 2015.

The Government will be consulting on their plans for ILF in early 2011 although no date has yet been given for its release.

Many high lesion SCI people who need large care and support packages from their local authority via direct services, direct payments or personal/individual budgets rely on ILF payments to enable them to do more than just get up in the mornings and go to bed at night. Extra ILF payments enable them to partake in such things as family life, social and leisure activities, shopping, volunteering and generally partaking in community life.

SIA is concerned that if the ILF closes more pressure will be placed on local authority budgets as they are asked to pick up the short fall and overall awards for care and support packages will be driven down.

A newly injured person with a high lesion SCI who has been discharged since the 1st May 2010 will not be able to access the ILF unless the Government’s position is reversed. SIA believes that as many as 75 new SCI people could be affected over the year 1st May 2010 – 30th April 2011 effectively creating a two tier system for those already claiming ILF and those unable to do so.

Please write to your MP and encourage them to sign up to the Early Day Motion against closing the ILF. You can download a template letter below.

Attached Files

•  ILF_EDM_letter.pdf   48.7K   108 downloads

[greybeard]

Use THIS LINK to find out who your MP is and send them an email from this site.

[greybeard]

Here is the sample letter if you want to use email using the link in the previous message. Just copy and paste.

Dear

Please support Early Day Motion 1231 (See below) to stop the closure of the Independent Living Fund. (ILF)

'That this House notes with concern the Government's announcement that the Independent Living Fund will be permanently closed to new applicants and completely phased out by the end of this Parliament; further notes that this will affect around 21,000 current recipients as well as those who would have applied to the fund in the future; acknowledges the fantastic assistance that the Independent Living Fund has provided severely disabled people to live independently; and calls on the Government to reconsider its decision, which will affect thousands of severely disabled people and will in the long term lead to greater financial costs as more people are placed in long term care.'


The closure of the Independent Living Fund (ILF) and the loss of funding will potentially put at risk 21,000 of the most severely disabled people around the country; disabled people who as a result may be unable to continue to live independently in the community. The existing fund is already failing to meet current demand against a restrictive criteria. A number of your constituents will receive financial support from the fund, local residents who may otherwise become institutionalised and be forced to live away from the Borough.

These are the very same people, disabled people with the highest support needs, that the coalition government says they are committed to supporting. However this, along with a host of other policy decisions that adversely affect disabled people, would suggest that this is not the whole truth.

There is clearly no commitment to ensure that disabled people can continue to lead inclusive lives and to be treated as citizens. The result of the loss of funding to the ILF, together with the drastic reduction to entitlements to health and social care budgets will be in contradiction to disabled people's rights under the UN Convention on Rights for People with Disabilities to live independently. Any government should be ashamed of such decisions which in day to day terms can only push disabled people even further to the margins of society.

I fail to see, as more pressure is placed on non-ring fenced local authority social care budgets, how disabled people who are at high risk of isolation and exclusion from the rest of society will have the short fall in financial resources met.

As your constituent I want you to please ask why the ILF is being scrapped, even before any consultation has taken place and why there seems to be little practical commitment to support disabled peoples' equality and human rights by this government.

If you are unable to sign EDMs please let me know that you intend to support the contents of the EDM and confirm that you will write to the Government highlighting your constituents' concerns.

I would be grateful for your support and written response regarding this issue.

Yours sincerely,

Edited by greybeard, 28 January 2011 - 09:51 PM.