Disability is not Inability

The disability challenge: the Conservative Party's disability website

Shadow Minister for Disabled People, Jeremy Hunt MP, today welcomed the publication of a Department for Work and Pensions commissioned review of the Independent Living Funds.

Shadow Minister for Disabled People, Jeremy Hunt MP, today welcomed the publication of a Department for Work and Pensions commissioned review of the Independent Living Funds (ILFs).

He called on the Government to urgently consider the recommendations set out in the review and set out a clear framework for how the funds could work within the structures of individual and personalised budgets.

He also called for immediate action on a number of the recommendations that would improve the delivery of the ILFs. Work on estimating the costs of extending the funds to disabled people over the age of 65 and those who are or have been residents of long-stay hospitals and campus accommodation, together with an estimate of the impact and cost of removing the joint ceiling cap of the Funds and an investigation into decoupling the link between higher rate DLA and the ILFs are all needed to establish how the operation of the Funds can be improved for its users in the immediate future.

Mr Hunt stated:

"The review rightly praises the excellent support that the Independent Living Funds provide to a number of disabled people across the country. It is important that the Government acts promptly in its consideration of these recommendations as work needs to start now on how the operation of the Funds can be improved."

"Although the future of the Funds has rightly been protected in the medium term it is vital that the Government establishes how they could fit into the general move towards personalised cash for care programmes."

The disability challenge:
the Conservative Party's disability website