Direct payments to soar under 20-year disabled plan
Direct payments to people with disabilities will be increased so that they – not bureaucrats – can control how they are looked after, the Government announced today.
A key plank of its new 20-year strategy to improve the life chances of Britain’s 11 million disabled people, drawn up by the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, is helping people with disabilities to live more independently of government.
Speaking today, Maria Eagle, the Minister for Disabled People, said giving people cash in hand to spend how they liked would increase their control over everyday tasks such as getting dressed or going to work.
She said: “Independent living means enabling people to have choice and empowerment in their daily lives.”
The Government had “substantially increased” the rights of disabled people but had not transformed their lives, and they still faced a wide range of barriers, reflected in their greater poverty, lower levels of educational achievement and high rates of unemployment, Ms Eagle said.
The new strategy would “turn rights into reality”, she vowed.
She urged patience, saying it was a 20-year strategy, “not a two-year strategy”. However, direct payment scheme pilots should start this year.
Unison’s general secretary, Dave Prentis, said he welcomed the Government’s plans – in particular the establishment of a new Office for Disability.
He said: “Disabled workers face many barriers and the new Office for Disability will raise awareness of those problems as well as giving a co-ordinated approach to tackling those difficulties across Government departments.”
Mr Prentis added that any notion that “disabled people are scroungers that don’t want to work but prefer to live on benefits” should be eradicated, saying: “To tackle the obstacles littering the path to employment we need more investment in the Government’s access to Work Scheme, greater choice in public and private housing, accessible transport and inclusive education.”
Ms Eagle also said that the Government does not intend to cut the level of the incapacity benefit or the length of time that people can claim it.
She admitted that the Department for Work and Pensions’ forthcoming five-year strategy – to be published shortly – would include a chapter on reforming the incapacity benefit. However, she said the proposals for reform “are not about cutting or time limiting the incapacity benefit” but were designed to give claimants increased financial security while providing incentives to return to work for those who wanted to do so.
“It’s about trying to get a better, more user-friendly and useful benefit that helps people get back to work,” she said.
