Update 2 September: Mirror story now out on this care cut: This disabled man has lost HALF his care after Tories axed the Independent Living Fund.

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Original post 1 September 2015:

Disabled campaigners and supporters will hold a protest today at Waltham Forest Town Hall in support of former Independent Living Fund recipient Gabriel Pepper, who is facing a substantial cut to his care package now that the ILF is closed. The ILF used to pay for some of Gabriel’s care. Now, Gabriel must rely entirely on Waltham Forest council to pay for his care package – a package that will be cut by about 48%.

So much for government claims that councils could and would meet disabled people’s care needs when the Independent Living Fund closed. “All disabled people, including those transferring from the ILF, will continue to be protected by a safety net that guarantees disabled people get the support they need,” Cameron’s last government waffled in 2014 when then-Minister for Disabled People Mike Penning announced again that the ILF would close. (I say “again” because the courts had recently thrown out a previous government decision to close the ILF. Undeterred, that government returned in March 2014 to say again that it would close the fund).

Obviously, Penning was talking rot. We all knew that, but still.

The protest about the cut to Gabriel’s care package will take place from:

12pm to 2pm
Waltham Forest Town Hall
701 Forest Rd
Walthamstow
E17 4J

All support appreciated.

Here’s Gabriel discussing his disability and the reasons why he needed the ILF to pay for extra carer hours:

Update: 5pm.

Tweets from Penny Pepper at the protest today:

Here we are Walthamstow, protest over sickening cut to social care please share @Dis_PPL_Protest #gabrielcruelcut pic.twitter.com/yUyA7poMlu

— Penny Pepper (@PenPep) September 1, 2015

Press at the Walthamstow Town Hall protest now. #grabrielcruelcut @Dis_PPL_Protest @hangbitch pic.twitter.com/SKzqqtjMT2 — Penny Pepper (@PenPep) September 1, 2015

Short update on the recently closed Independent Living Fund:

A couple of weeks ago, Minister for Disabled People Justin Tomlinson wrote an imperious letter to the Guardian in response to an Aditya Chakrabortty article about social security cuts.

Tomlinson’s letter included this very touchy paragraph about the government’s closure of the Independent Living Fund – the fund that severely disabled people used to pay for essential extra carer hours before the government closed the fund on June 30:

“Aditya Chakrabortty’s article (Disabled people have become human collateral in an ideological war, 9 June) is a travesty of the truth. First among a catalogue of inaccuracies is the claim that support made available to some disabled people under the independent living fund is to be removed. Responsibility for providing this support is, in fact, being transferred to local authorities. Far from being taken away, it will be administered in a way better able to take account of variations in local circumstances and services.”

Tomlinson was talking total shit, of course. We knew that and many have reported on it, but still. I sent an FOI recently to local authorities to ask for updates on the devolution of ILF funding to councils.

FOI responses have started to trickle in. It’s still early days, but we can already see where this is going. A few examples: Lewisham council says it still doesn’t have a final figure for the amount of devolved ILF funding it will get from government (Lewisham sent its response today). Sunderland only found out how much it would get a week before the ILF closed and only began to assess ILF recipients to figure out their future care needs and costs on 1 July. Some councils haven’t yet assessed the former ILF recipients that they’re now responsible for and some have only assessed a few. Nobody has any idea if they’ll get any money after 2016 (the government has said only the ILF money will be devolved to councils for a year). And I got an intriguing response today from Barking and Dagenham council in response to a question about the council’s expectations re: its ability to fund care for ILF recipients in an ongoing way.

I asked: “Does the authority expect to be able to meet the care costs of all ILF recipients to the same level as ILF funding?”

“No,” said the council.

Always interesting to get a straight reply from a local authority. It was certainly a straighter answer than Tomlinson gave in his highly misleading, disingenuous, whiny letter.

Anyway. There we are. More as responses come in.

Video: disabled protestors occupy parliament on 24 June in protest at the closure of the Independent Living Fund:

People who follow me on twitter will know that on Thursday, I joined Independent Living Fund recipient Mary Laver and her personal assistants, Mirror journalist Ros Wynne-Jones and Green party members and supporters as Mary travelled all the way from Westminster to Chingford in her wheelchair to protest at the government’s plan to close the ILF. The ILF is used by profoundly disabled people to pay for the extra carer hours that they need to lead independent lives.

That walk to Chingford was a good effort – took us nearly nine hours. Ouch. Respect to all concerned.

In the short film below which I made about the march, Mary says that she left the Conservative party and joined the Green party, because of the present government’s decision to close the ILF (at 5.20 in the video). Labour won’t keep the fund open – although Andy Burnham agrees that ILF recipients need some sort of protection when the fund closes, he wasn’t able to say what those protections would be when I last filmed him. Labour’s hopes for social care seem to be entirely tied up in Burnham’s plans for integrated health and social care services – a plan which is obviously a very long way from being implemented.

Without the ILF, a lot of disabled people will be in a very bad place. They’ll rely on councils to provide those extra care hours – councils that can’t meet demand for care as it is. Funding will be devolved to councils, but only for a limited time, and there are no plans to ringfence the devolved money at many councils.

A few photos from the march to Chingford:

Preparing to leave Westminster at 7.30am

Meeting with fellow ILF recipient Sophie Partridge at Kings Cross station

With supporters at Chingford

All images and video ©katebelgrave.com.