From Carer Watch's blog
URGENT ACTION: #SaveILF judgement due Monday
Received from Inclusion London. Please share with your networks.
URGENT ACTION: #SaveILF judgement due Monday!!!
10am – Monday 8th December 2014
As the future of disabled people’s right to independent living hangs in the balance, disabled people will not be beaten.
Join
us to get the message out loud and clear: whatever the legal ruling, we
will not be pushed back into the margins of society, we will not go
back into the institutions, our place is in the community alongside our
family and friends and neighbours and we are fighting to stay.
On
10am Monday 8th December the judgment in the most recent legal
challenge against the closure of the Independent Living Fund will be
passed down.
In
November last year the Court of Appeal quashed the government’s
decision to close the ILF with the Court of Appeal judges unanimous in
their view that the closure of the fund would have an ‘inevitable and
considerable adverse effect which the closure of the fund will have,
particularly on those who will as a consequence lose the ability to live
independently.”
In
March this year the then Minister for Disabled People Mike Penning
retook the decision and announced a new date of June 2015 for permanent
closure of the Fund that provides essential support enabling disabled
people with the highest support needs to live in the community when the
alternative would be residential care.
In
October a second legal challenge was heard in the high court brought by
disabled claimants claiming that the Minister had not considered any
new information to properly assess the practical effect of closure on
the particular needs of ILF users. The Department for Work and Pensions
mounted a defence based on their assertion that the Minister had
adequate information to realise that the independent living of the
majority of ILF users will be significantly impacted by the closure of
the fund.
The
closure of the ILF effectively signals the end of the right to
independent living for disabled people in the UK. Whilst never perfect
the ILF represents a model of support that has enabled thousands of
disabled people to enjoy meaningfully lives and to contribute to society
as equal citizens. The closure of the Fund to new applicants in
December 2010 has resulted in disabled people trapped indoors without
their basic needs being met, treated worse that animals and if they
complain to their local authorities about needing more support,
threatened with residential care.
The fight to #SaveILF is part of a much wider fight for social justice for all disabled people....
Continue reading on Carer Watch's blog....
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