Baroness Uddin – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Uddin on 2014-05-07.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what provisions exist to safeguard monies identified by the Independent Living Fund (ILF) as needed to meet the critical and substantial need of recipients; and whether such funds will be ring-fenced by local authorities to ensure monies are used exclusively for continuation of care when the ILF ceases.

Lord Freud

All the funding that would have been allocated to the ILF in 2015/16 to support its users from July 2015 onwards will be transferred to local authorities in England and to the devolved administrations in other parts of the UK. Local government social care funding is not ring-fenced, allowing local authorities the flexibility to manage their budgets locally in line with local needs and priorities. Local authorities have a statutory duty to assess and fund the eligible care needs of all disabled people, including former users of the Independent Living Fund. The Public Sector Equality Duty applies to local government in the same way as it does to central government.