{"id":10133,"date":"2016-10-06T15:21:56","date_gmt":"2016-10-06T14:21:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=10133"},"modified":"2016-10-06T15:21:56","modified_gmt":"2016-10-06T14:21:56","slug":"left-all-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=10133","title":{"rendered":"Left all alone"},"content":{"rendered":"
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More than two thirds of English councils have cut vital care packages for disabled people since the government scrapped the Independent Living Fund (ILF) in favour of paying local authorities directly, freedom of information (FOI) requests reveal.<\/p>\n

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The ILF<\/a>, which helped those with disabilities live in the community rather than in residential care, was axed in June last year with the funds being redirected to local authorities for dispersal.<\/p>\n

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Channel 4 News<\/a> sent FOI requests to the 150 councils in England responsible for social care, of which 90 percent responded.<\/p>\n

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The requests revealed that 80 percent of respondents had cut the amount of funding ILF recipients previously received, while 67 percent of respondents do not ring fence the money provided from central government to care for those with disabilities.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

While the government has stipulated that local authorities cannot spend the money they receive on unrelated areas, such as parks or housing, they are free to use the funds on social care unrelated to disabled people.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Social exclusion<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Chair of Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s national disabilities committee Sean McGovern said the cuts, which are primarily against services which enable disabled people to leave their homes, are a form of \u00e2\u20ac\u015bsocial exclusion\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bPeople are bathed, fed, dressed and then left sitting inside their home unable to go out. In the past people were using the money for social or health elements, like visiting family or going swimming or to the gym, but now they won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fund the support needed to do those things,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said McGovern, who works as an advisor for disabled people in London.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bPeople are becoming socially isolated. We hear extreme cases where a personal assistant will come in the morning for 45 minutes, do what they need to do, leave three or four glasses of water beside the service user and say \u00e2\u20ac\u0098that will do you \u00e2\u20ac\u0098til lunch or dinner time.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 People cannot be expected to exist like that.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

McGovern pointed out that ultimately preventing disabled people from living normal lives will cause more problems that in it solves.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf a person is deprived of social contact and unable to engage in activity their mental health and wellbeing will suffer. Inevitably, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to create an impact on other services,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

‘Blinkered’ austerity<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Unite national officer for local authorities<\/a> Fiona Farmer said that while councils were suffering severe shortfalls in funding, they could not ignore their duty of care to disabled people.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bLocal councils are facing unprecedented budget cuts that are seriously damaging their ability to provide vital public services to communities.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe responsibility for this lies with the Tories, who for years have doggedly pursued a blinkered and ideological path of austerity that has damaged living standards, destroyed services and hobbled the economy,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Farmer said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She added, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bDespite the difficulties local authorities are facing, however, they cannot forget their duty to some of the most vulnerable in their care. Unite calls upon the Tory government to reverse the cuts to local government and implement a fair funding strategy to fill the black hole.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than two thirds of English councils have cut vital care packages for disabled people since the government scrapped the Independent Living Fund (ILF) in favour of paying local authorities directly, freedom of information (FOI) requests reveal.   The ILF, which helped those with disabilities live in the community rather than in residential care, was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3164,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[76,172,198,571],"wps_subtitle":"Tory funding cuts leaving disabled people isolated","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10133"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10133"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10134,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10133\/revisions\/10134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}