The High Court has today upheld the Government’s decision to close the Independent Living Fund at the end of June 2015.
This will mean that about 17,500 disabled people who currently receive an award from the ILF will see those funds transferred to their local authority. Only a handful of local authorities have agreed to ring fence the funding to existing ILF recipients.
Sue Bott, Director of Policy and Development for Disability Rights UK says:
“This decision is very disappointing. Many ILF recipients face an uncertain future of not knowing whether they will be able to continue to live independently in the community particularly given the complete inadequacy of resources for social care and the implementation of the Care Act. I urge ILF recipients to find out what your local authority is doing. We have been hearing all sorts of excuses from some local authorities about why they cannot involve disabled people and let us know what is happening. But local authorities do know how much money will be transferred to them, they do know who are the ILF recipients in their area, and they now have guidance, contained in the Care Act guidance, about how the transition should be managed.”
Disability Rights UK asked local authorities to tell us what their intentions are in relation to the ILF.
You can find their responses here: http://disabilityrightsuk.org/news/2014/august/most-councils-will-not-ringfence-ilf-resources
More information about the High Court’s judgment is available @ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30374254