The coalition government’s decision in December 2010 to close the Independent Living Fund (ILF) for disabled people is finally coming home to roost. A new regime has to be in place by 1 July 2015 putting responsibility and funding squarely with local authorities instead of with the Department for Work and Pensions.
The new regime will be explained to Wiltshire Council’s cabinet meeting next Tuesday (December 16.) The transfer to the Council is fraught with risks – mostly, of course, for the disabled people concerned, but also for the Council.
At present this fund supports 71 people in Wiltshire – just ten of them live in the county’s ‘east locality’ which includes the Marlborough area. Those numbers may seem small, but the changes will be of major significance to each of these highly vulnerable individuals – and may even bring major disruption to the way they must lead their lives.
The sums involved are also not large. The ILF payments to those 71 people amount in this financial year to just over £1.3 million and the people themselves contribute a total of £209,000 to their care from other sources of income.
The process of this change will involve each of these people being reassessed between January and March 2015. Reassessment will be stressful enough. But the problem is that they will be reassessed not against ILF criteria, but against the Council’s social care criteria.
The Wiltshire Council cabinet is told clearly “Some people currently in receipt of support through the ILF will find that their support will reduce once Local Authorities take over full responsibility for meeting their social needs.” And they will not find out about reductions until after they have been reassessed.
One example of possible change will concern the 44 Wiltshire ILF recipients who need to employ personal assistants to help them live independently: “There is concern they may be paying [assistants] above the rate that Wiltshire Council would fund. There is also considerable concern about the financial impact of having to make personal assistants redundant if the ILF recipient is no longer entitled to this support.”
Another example carries a serious warning: “For some the level of change could be considerable, for example approximately 30 Wiltshire ILF users use their funding to purchase 24 hour care, however their level of eligible need following local authority reassessment may not enable them to continue with this level of support.”
No wonder then that the paper for cabinet admits there is a ‘strong lobby’ for ‘transitional protection’. But there is no mention of how these disabled people will find cheaper people to help them live independently.
We will never be able to find out how much of the payment from central government to Wiltshire to cover these ILF recipients is actually being used to enable them to live independently because the money “…will go into the baseline budget for Wiltshire Council adult social care which will be supporting and funding these customers from 1 July 2015.”
This is to be expected as the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats do not as a general policy like ring-fenced budgets when handing money over to local authorities.
Why have these changes been brought in? Probably in part to take another ‘burden’ off the Department for Work and Pensions and enable a paring back of the costs of the scheme – in line with post-2010 austerity ‘all-in-it-together’ measures and the downsizing of central government.
Officially, as Wiltshire councillors are being told, “The reason for the closure of the ILF is to enable all customers with a disability to be supported by one social care system (through their Local Authority) to ensure a more equitable and streamlined service.”
The cabinet is made aware of five risks involved in these changes. The first is a realistic assessment of what the Council may face: “If people aren’t happy with the level of support they will be offered after July 2015, there is the potential for large numbers of disputes and complaints that will need managing…” Then there is the danger of challenge over any lack of consistency in assessments.
There is a risk that the Council may have to pick up all the personal contributions – a possible bill of about £209,000. There is also a risk of the money not arriving on time from central government – a process that “is till not clear.”
Finally there is the risk that “As individuals highlight concerns about their situations, there is likely to be media interest.”
[The ILF was permanently closed to new applicants in December 2010. This decision was ruled unlawful by the High Court due to the government’s failure to consider the impact of the closure on their Public Sector Equality Duty. A new decision was announced on 6 March 2014. This ordered that the fund must close on 30 June 2015.]
