The Independent Living Fund

The government announced in March 2014 that it would be closing the Independent Living Fund Scheme and transferring responsibility and funding to local authorities in England and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland as of June 2015. The announcement came despite a Court of Appeal ruling quashing the original closure decision. It said there was insufficient evidence that the “very grave impact” on some of those affected was properly brought to the attention of the minister for disabled people Mike Penning.

The general Unite union said that it had no confidence that councils, already suffering from swingeing funding cuts, could provide the same standard of care. It fears the move will create a postcode lottery – the Scottish government announced that it would set up a Scottish ILF.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka called the UK government’s announcement “devastating news for the thousands of disabled people who rely on the Independent Living Fund to help them live the kind of lives most of us take for granted.”