Does anyone know of any proposals relating to AA/DLA and how these benefits are going to fit within the Personal Budget agenda in terms of the funding of the initiative?

As a specialist provider of sheltered and extra care housing for older people we are concerned that the future of these benefits is under threat and that it is possible they may be swallowed up within the whole Self Directed Support financial pool so that eventually only those people who fall within the scope of an SDS assessment will have access to the funding that is currently available for AA/DLA.

Given the way that these 2 benefits interact with and enhance the income related benefits we feel that they already provide an income that allows people to self direct their required support without any intervention from the local authorities and we fear that the removal of the ability to claim them independently will actively exclude many people from receiving the financial support they need to live the life they choose.

Does anybody else share our concern for the future of these benefits?

Do you know of any focus groups/projects that are currently exploring these issues, particularly with regard to older people?

All views and information on this subject welcome.

No-one answering? Anyone know anything?

My understanding is that at this stage in policy development AA/DLA is not directly included in the development of individual budgets. I suspect the risk of AA/DLA entitlement being linked to social care assessments is real but a little way off yet.

What is happening now is that the benefits of both AA/DLA and individual budgets are being stripped away by Social Services charging regimes, under the ludicrous rubric of 'Fairer Charging'. When 75% or 90% of disposable income (above IS/PC levels + 25%) including AA and DLA care component is being taken in charges the rhwetoric of 'choice' and 'independence' starts to ring very hollow.

Richard Atkinson

Thanks for your response Richard, this is indeed our concern. H21 employs 2 benefit and income maximisation advisers who have 'released' nearly 1/2 a million £s in extra yearly benefits to our older residents in the last 7 years.

Most of this has been by way of AA and the extra income related benefits it passports to. By far the majority of it has been awarded to people who, at the time of claiming, had no interaction with social services.

We believe that the extra income at a stage prior to an event or trauma that brings SS into the picture allows people enhanced independence and the ability to make lifestyle choices that probably help avoid such intervention for a much longer time - this is, of course, unquantifiable but the anecdotal evidence we have collected does support this view.

Our chief worry is that this will be seen as a budgetary issue and that these benefits will be integrated into the Individual Budget funding by stealth and without proper consultation - the lack of response to my original posting does seem to indicate that this aspect of the IB agenda is not raising these concerns as I feel it should.

Tue 16-Sep-08 09:14 AM by Paul_Treloar_

Sorry, missed this before. Disability Alliance shares your concerns about DLA/AA being pulled into the social care funding agenda - we strongly resist any intentions to pool this money in to social care budgets under the control of local authorities, as the evidence already exists about the very real problems that are developing in this area i.e. lower numbers assessed as eligible for social care payments, higher payments required from those who are assessed as eligible and a complete lack of consistency of provision.

Our argument is basically that for all their problems, (mainly administrative it has to be said), DLA and AA are essentially proto-individual budgets that do have the advantages of being universal and assessed to common standards and they do provide an income that can be used as the individual sees fit i.e. choice and control, as a recognition of the extra costs of disability, not as a prop for social care services.

We have pressed and pushed on the issue and have been reassured by Ministers that DLA/AA are not up for review <i>"at the moment"</i> - so I think we need to be prepared for future argument and debate on these vitally important benefits.

new paper from the local government association calls for responsibility and funding for (unspecified) non means tested benefits (but one would assume they mean AA/DLA) to be incorporated into local budgets

.. see today's rightsnet news Funding for some social security benefits should be incorporated into a new locally-based system of care and support

If local authorities got their hands on DLA/AA budgets, it would be a complete disaster in my opinion.

new evaluation out ....

... see DoH press release and full report.

having had a quick scan, i'd guess that the problems they've had with integrating additional funding streams (see para 16.1.1) will mean that benefits will not be integrated any time soon

see also para 8.9.1, where reference is made, in relation to integrating disability benefits, to the 'political difficulties of such a radical overhaul'