Thursday 27 January 2011

Disability Living Allowance to be replaced

The consultation closes on 14th February 2011.

Disability Living Allowance to be replaced

Carers UK has expressed concerns about the Government's plans to replace Disability Living Allowance, the main disability benefit.
As part of plans to reduce spending on Disability Living Allowance by 20% (£1 billion) over the next four years, the Government has launched a consultation on proposals to scrap Disability Living Allowance and replace it with a ‘Personal Independence Payment’. Carers UK Chief Executive Imelda Redmond CBE, said:

“This proposal would be one of the biggest changes in disability benefits since Disability Living Allowance was created and has big implications for carers.
Although reshaping disability benefits does present opportunities to improve the application and assessment processes for disabled people, we are deeply concerned that these plans will mean that hundreds of thousands of disabled people will see their benefits reduced or removed.”

We are extremely disappointed that the proposals do not assess the knock-on impacts for families, which could be devastating, particularly for those who receive Carer’s Allowance alongside Disability Living Allowance.

Our research shows that carers depend on these benefits to pay basic bills and that carers are already spending their own income to pay for care for their loved-ones. Cuts like this to the incomes of people affected by disability could force more carers into poverty or mean they can no longer care.”

The consultation closes on 14th February and details can be found at