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Good news: Government DLA u-turn: care home residents to keep mobility component

The Government has announced a significant u-turn after over a year of campaigning

The mobility component of DLA will not now be removed from disabled people living in residential care homes and the mobility component of Personal Independence Payment (PIP, replacing DLA from 2013) will be payable to care home residents if they satisfy entitlement conditions.  In the Spending Review 2010 it was announced that, from October 2012, the DLA mobility component would be withdrawn from people in residential care homes after 28 days.

Due to the widespread protest about the impact that removing the component would have on the 78,000 disabledpeople living in statefunded residential care (and their families), in February the Government

announced it would conduct an internal review of the proposal.  However, concerns that the Government's review was taking place behind closed doors prompted leading disability charities Mencap and Leonard Cheshire Disability to ask DA President Lord Low to conduct a review to create an opportunity for an independent, public and comprehensive examination of the issue.

The Government’s u-turn on its mobility component reform came a few weeks after the publication of Lord Low’s Review which concluded that:

• the DLA mobility component and its successor under PIP should be retained by care home residents as its removal would lead to a loss of independence for disabled people;
• there is no evidence of a duplication of funding in relation to the mobility needs being met by local authorities and the mobility needs being met by DLA mobility; and
• there needs to be greater clarity of local authorities’ responsibilities for funding mobility needs and the role played by DLA.

In addition, Lord Low advocated that the Department of Health (and the Scottish and Welsh Governments) should:

• develop a peer led initiative encouraging and supporting disabled people living in residential care to directly manage their Personal Independence Payment mobility component;
• revise the Charging for Residential Accommodation Guide (CRAG) to make clear that the mobility component is to be completely disregardedby local authorities, both in means testing and in establishing how to meet assessed needs; and
• write to all local authorities drawing their attention to the revised CRAG, emphasising the requirement for local authorities to meet all assessed mobility needs.

Welcoming the findings of Lord Low’s Review and the Government’s u-turn, DA Director of Policy Neil Coyle said:

“Lord Low’s independent review of Government plans was published 3rd November. It appears to have already been influential as the Government has now announced a u-turn on cutting the £160 million funding 78,000 disabled care home residents. We are pleased the strong campaign by disabled people and organizations like ours hasbeen successful.

However, DWP has acknowledged that it must now fund this cut elsewhere. With over £1.3 billion to be lost a year from general DLA expenditure by 2015/16 a further £160 million represents 44,000 disabled people losing average DLA payments.  We remain concerned that the Government has failed to adequately impact assess broader DLA cuts. The rationale for DLA cuts has been exposed as false for care home residents and remains just as poor for DLA overall”.

The Low Review: Personal Mobility in State-Funded Residential Care is available via the link below.

The Low Review