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1 April 2010 – ILF welcomes White Paper proposals

The Independent Living Fund (ILF) has responded to the Government's White paper ‘Building the National Care Service'.

In particular the ILF has welcomed the prospect of joined up and predictable support to customers, and the intention to further streamline the way that different funding streams work together to provide people with coherent support.

Stephen Jack, Chair of the ILF Trustees, said, "Our own consultations with 21,000 ILF users across all parts of the UK confirm that above all they want consistent support that they can depend upon.

"Most of our users already receive joined up support from their local authority and the ILF, and we attach great importance to the high satisfaction rates we obtain for customer service to those severely disabled people."

The ILF will play an active role in the Right to Control trailblazers, as one of the named funding streams. The trailblazers will be an excellent means of testing out how best to draw further funding streams into an integrated system, and to simplify processes still further for the customer.

Stephen Jack explained, "The ILF already brings the critical elements of national consistency, portability of support, and links to the benefit system, to the locally driven arrangements that otherwise characterise care funding in the UK. These are central features of the new proposals."

Ends

For more information contact David Smith, on 0115 9450730 or 07779 083493.

Notes to editors

1. The Independent Living Fund (ILF) is an Executive Non-Departmental Public Body of the Department for Work and Pensions. It awards payments to severely disabled people to support the cost of their personal assistance, enabling them to live fully inclusive independent lives in their communities. To get payments from the ILF you have to meet certain conditions.
2. The ILF provides financial assistance under the terms of a single publicly financed discretionary Trust Deed - The Independent Living Fund (2006), governed by a Board of nine Trustees.
3. The ILF currently provides financial support to over 21,000 disabled people in the UK, and has supported over 46,000 disabled people during the last 21 years.
4. The allocated budget for ILF for 2010-11 is £348m for Great Britain and £11.2m for Northern Ireland.
5. The Government's White Paper, ‘Building the National Care Service' was launched on 30 March 2010. The paper sets out the Government's proposals to build a comprehensive National Care Service for all adults in England with an eligible care need, free when they need it. Visit: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_114922
6. The Right to Control is about disabled people having control over the support they need to go about their daily lives. Disabled people who are eligible for support will be told how much money is available to spend on that support. They will be able to decide how the money is spent, by saying what service they want and/or being given money to buy the support themselves. They will have the choice to have as much, or as little, direct control over the money as they are comfortable with. It will be up to each individual to decide what is right for them. You can find out more about the Right to Control at: www.odi.gov.uk/right-to-control