DLA saved for some

Health secretary Andy Burnham MP has said that he has ‘heard the concerns and worries about disability living allowance’.

He has announced that:

“I can state categorically that we have now ruled out any suggestion that DLA for under-65s will be brought into the new National Care Service.”

However, Attendance Allowance (AA) and DLA being provided for anyone over-65 are still under threat with proposals in the Government's Green Paper on reforming social care.

Although a claim for DLA has to be made before you are 65, if you are awarded it on an indefinite basis, you will currently continue to receive it after 65. The current propsals mean that this could now stop as soon as you reach your sixty-fifth birthday.

It was made clear by Mr Burnham that there will be no transitional protection of existing awards for current claimants. Instead, ‘an equivalent level of support' will be provided by your local authority.

However, this does not take into account that currently DLA can be spent as needed and not just on social care. Many people use it to fund private treatments such as ongoing physiotherapy that reduce their need for social care.

The petition asking the Prime Minister to recognise the vital support that Attendance Allowance (AA) and Disability Living Allowance (DLA) provide to disabled people, and to ensure that these benefits are secured and are not removed as part of any future reform of the social care system in England, now has nearly twnety thousand signatures attached to it.

Click here to sign the petition.

You can download the Green Paper and Supporting documents here. The relevant section of the full Green Paper is on page 102-103.

You can respond to the consultation online, by email or by post. Full details on how to do so are available here.

The organisation BenefitsandWork.co.uk is highlighting the potential issues from the Green paper. You can view BenefitsandWork.co.uk's FAQ on the issue and sign up to their campaign here.