# Attendance allowance



## Ljc (Sep 1, 2016)

I received this email today and was wondering if you would consider signing this open letter.


Find out how you can help



​Dear

As we get older, many of us find ourselves living with a disability. This can often come with a higher price tag for day to day things - such as travel to appointments, specialist food, or help cleaning - that can help older people to remain healthier and independent in their own homes.

Attendance Allowance is a weekly payment that helps *more than a million older disabled people in England* meet some of the extra costs they face. But the future of this vital support is under threat from Government proposals to pass responsibility for it to councils.



​This would have a devastating impact for older disabled people in the future, creating a postcode lottery of support and potentially leaving thousands of people to struggle by with no help at all. *For many older people, this would mean losing their independence altogether.*

But there is still time to stop these changes. We need your help to send a strong message to ministers not to go ahead with the proposals for Attendance Allowance.

Please sign our open letter.

Thank you,




Ceri Smith
Age UK Campaigns Team
www.ageuk.org.uk/campaigns

Support us on Twitter at @ageukcampaigns

Find out how you can help
​


----------



## Amigo (Sep 1, 2016)

This is a worrying development if it follows in the wake of the Govt. shifting the monies for the Independent Living Fund to Councils. This was a lifeline for 18,000 mainly younger severely disabled people. The problem is the Local Authority didn't and weren't required to ring fence this money to help disabled people. It could and in some cases did go straight into the Council pot and funded everything from roads to refuge services. 

It's one thing the Attendance Allowance money going into the LA Social Care pot but then the former recipients still have to be assessed for eligibility for services which is then means tested and paid for. It's a double whammy! 

With the growing increase in the dependent elderly population, I predicted this some time ago. I just knew the Attendance Allowance would be targeted. I can guarantee that just like the ILF, it will take some stopping.


----------



## Diabeticliberty (Sep 1, 2016)

Signed


----------



## KookyCat (Sep 1, 2016)

I've signed it and posted it to Facebook and Twitter.  My aunt relied heavily on attendance allowance so I know how vital it was for her.  I don't know how we're letting them get away with this.  They are systematically undermining all support for those with disabilities and it's just plain wrong  I'm actually starting to hate this country and I've never ever felt that way about us as a society before, despite what was going on politically I still felt we were all in this together.  Lately it seems it's every man for themselves.


----------



## mikeyB (Sep 1, 2016)

I can't sign this letter because I live in the wrong country- or more precisely, the right one. Il tell you a story.

When I developed my motor neuropathy, which causes very limited walking ability, and persists to this day, I was put in touch with Argyll Care and Repair.
This is an agency of Argyll and Bute Council. They assessed me, along with the Occupational Therapist, and arranged for me to have installed a stairlift, and a disability adapted bathroom. They checked that I could afford to pay 20% of the cost, then arranged for tenders for the work which they would then arrange. (If I couldn't pay, further grants are available) The bathroom was completed just today (I have had the stairlift for some months). It is fitted as a wetroom with a folding shower chair, folding grab rails for the toilet, and a superb moulded non slip floor. 

So I now have a home fully adapted for disabled living. Around £11,000 of work has been done at a cost to me of around £2,700, which wouldn't even pay for the floor of the bathroom.

This grant and service provided is not means tested. The council regard it as a small price to pay to keep disabled and elderly people in their own homes rather than sheltered accommodation, or worse, in a home for the elderly.

And the bonus? My council tax gets reduced by one assessment level.

I'd much rather not be disabled, but if I lived in England I would be disabled and desperate, instead of living in the home I love. Different country, different priorities. And not utterly, brazenly and shamefully heartless.


----------

