All clear on DLA

At last the Government seems to have got its ducks in a row with regard to Disability Living Allowance. 

Secretary of State Andy Burnham has finally put paid to speculation that DLA might be subsumed into the general care finance pot.

Previously messages had been decidedly mixed.  In an interview I did with him at the point where the social care green paper consultation was launched, Care Minister Phil Hope said that, although DLA was not specifically mentioned in the green paper (Attendance Allowance was), the question of whether people would prefer to keep it or have it put towards general care costs was very much up for discussion.

This position was confirmed by DWP’s minister for disabled people Jonathan Shaw.  Speaking to us at the Labour Party conference he too said that the future of DLA was part of the ongoing discussions on funding social care for the future.

In the meantime, Mr Hope, speaking at a fringe event at the same conference strongly indicated that he’d resiled on the matter and that DLA was categorically not under threat.

Given this mixed picture, those people concerned for the future of DLA and AA took some comfort from the fact that the count-down clock to the next election is now running and therefore any proposals resulting from the consultation would almost certainly run out of time before they could be implemented.

This doesn’t mean though, that people who continue to be concerned for the future of Attendance Allowance – a community of interest which goes beyond only those people who’re in receipt of it – can afford to or should take their foot off the gas in terms of exerting pressure on the Government for its retention.