Independent Living Fund to close

Sunil Peck

The fears of disabled people about the future of the Independent Living Fund (ILF) have been confirmed by the announcement that the fund is to close by 2015.

The ILF, set up in 1988, provides money to more than 20 thousand disabled people with high support needs to live independently at home out of residential care.

Fears for the ILF's future intensified In June when the coalition government announced that the fund would be closed to new applicants for the remainder of the financial year.

Ian Burnip, a 24-year-old ILF service user said: “I have relied on the ILF to enable me to go to university, obtain a BSc and an MA, and live independently in the community I choose. This has allowed me to develop and maintain key friendships with people from all walks of life, and live what society would deem a perfectly normal life. Without the financial support provided by the ILF I could not have done this.

Eleanor Lisney, co-founder of the user led organisation Disabled People Against Cuts, said: "with the Disability Living Allowance changes and the forthcoming scrapping of the ILF, I do not see how the minister, Maria Miller, can still mention independent living and fairness. It seems obvious that she needs to meet more disabled people and understand the desperate and perilous conditions that these changes can be making to disabled people’s lives."

Rich Watts, director of Essex Coalition of Disabled People, said "When taken in combination with the proposed changes to Disability Living Allowance announced last week, it's nothing short of an out-and-out attack on disabled people."

Jim Elder-Woodward, Convenor of the user-led project Independent Living in Scotland, said That it was "sad" and "disappointing" that a government containing Liberal Democrat ministers who he said have a "caring and supportive outlook in terms of older and disabled people", were being "railroaded" by the "nasty" conservatives.

He said: "You shouldn't close the ILF without a clear idea of how you're going to be paying the benefits in a universal system promoting independent living for disabled people. The government wants local authorities to take over the funding of personalisation. But if they're cutting local authorities' funding by ten per cent, they're not going to be able to fund the millions that the ILF has funded in the past."

Richard Hawkes (pictured), Chief Executive of Scope, described the decision to close the ILF as "bemusing" because it did not square with the government's pledge to promote choice and control for disabled people.

He said: “Alongside hefty cuts to local government budgets and central government budgets, the deletion of the Independent Living Fund is piling yet more pressure on the already stretched support systems for disabled people and will undoubtedly lead to more disabled people having their choices limited – and their opportunities for contribution and participation being reduced."

The minister for disabled people Maria Miller said that following a review and informal consultations with disability organisations and representatives from local government and the Department of Health, the coalition government had decided that the ILF was "financially unsustainable".

She said that the coalition government had made safeguarding the position of existing recipients a priority and that there would be a consultation in 2011 to determine what happens to ILF recipients when the fund closes.