Funding for care and support for disabled people and especially for those with the most complex needs to live independently can come from 3 separate funding streams: social services, health and from the Independent Living Fund.
“The Independent Living Fund is a ring fenced resource, for a priority group of just over 19,000 disabled people with high support needs that can provide a better lifestyle and outcomes for service users whose full needs would not be met by local authority funding. “
Unlike local authority and health care funding which tends to focus simply on keeping disabled people alive and clean the funding available from ILF helps disabled people to take part in society on an equal basis to non-disabled people.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and in particular Article 19: “Living independently and being included in the community”, states that “disabled people have a right to live in the community; with the support they need and can make choices like other people do”.
The closure of the ILF has obvious implications for the UK’s chances of meeting all such obligations. Most importantly for those disabled people who will lose this financial support they will lose any independence and choice in their lives. You can listen to how this vicious attack will affect disabled people at these links.
http://www.dpac.uk.net/2013/02/a-nasty-cut-people-affected-by-the-closure-of-the-independent-l5142/
http://falseeconomy.org.uk/blog/people-affected-by-the-closure-of-the-independent-living-fund
