Owen Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Owen Smith on 2015-11-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in receipt of the independent living fund have had that funding reduced following the transfer of that fund to local authorities.

Justin Tomlinson

The Government believes that local authorities are best placed to provide for the care needs of people in their local community. The Care Act 2014 introduced stringent minimum standards for this care and it is within this context that local authorities took over responsibility for the care and support of former Independent Living Fund users from 1st July 2015.

The government has fully-funded them to meet their additional obligations for the remainder of the 2015/16 financial year, but does not hold information on the care packages of individual former users. It has, however, committed to conducting research on the impact of the Fund’s closure and has already identified a sample of former users who have agreed to participate.