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DLA breakthrough in care reform plans good news - but older disabled people left facing an uncertain future

DA Press Release: 22 October 2009

Secretary of State for Health, Andy Burnham MP, has today announced that the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) benefit will not be affected by Government plans to merge some benefits with social care funding.

This is good news for the 2.2 million disabled people across Great Britain who feared the end of this benefit. DLA helps pay for the extra costs of living with an impairment/long-term health condition and is seen as essential by disabled people using it.

In July the Government published a Green Paper on the future of care reform 'Shaping the Future of Care Together' which suggested merging disability benefits with council funding for social services. Until today, disabled people's organisations were unsure which benefits were being considered. Andy Burnham's announcement will reassure disabled people that DLA is safe - for now at least.

However, the Government is yet to clarify exactly which other benefits might be redistributed through its plans for care reform.

The only concrete plans are for Attendance Allowance (AA) to be 'integrated' into council funding. AA is a similar benefit to DLA but paid to people over the age of 65.

AA makes a significant contribution to tackling pensioner poverty. The only criticism of AA has been that it does not help enough older disabled people. But moving AA funding to councils could potentially end access to support for many older disabled people who currently qualify for this national, non-means-tested benefit.

The Government has only promised 'an equivalent level of support' for current AA recipients and not guaranteed transitional protection which is the normal practice for benefit changes. Any older disabled person who needs but does not currently receive AA would not be protected even by this measure.

The 1.6 million older people who currently receive AA now face an uncertain future and are left on tenterhooks as many may not qualify for support unless councils are made to lower 'eligibility' thresholds to access care services.

Contact

For further information please contact Neil Coyle, Director of Policy on 020 7247 8759 or email: ncoyle@disabilityalliance.org.

Notes for editors

• Disability Alliance is a UK charity established in 1974 with the aim of breaking the link between disability and poverty.
• 29% of pensioners in households with one or more disabled adults who were not in receipt of disability benefits lived in poverty - compared to 11% receiving a disability benefit (like AA).

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