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Update on Anne Pridmore’s fight for the Independent Living Fund

Channel 4 news Katie Razzall had the piece  all ready for broadcast that eventful evening on the 13th March where Anne was at court with the other 5 people on behalf of thousands of others –  challenging the Government’s decision to scrap the Independent Living Fund from 2015 and devolve it to local authorities instead. However, in an ironic twist, news broke that a new Pope was chosen and all news coverage focused on that instead.

It was published online instead

Anne told Channel 4 News: “It’s like the sword of Damocles hanging over my shoulder because it’s always on your mind: what’s going to happen? Many of us feel the same way. If the local authority won’t take over the funding to pay for the bit the ILF have been paying, I see the only option is being put into an old people’s home. I’ve lived in this house for 47 years and didn’t expect to have to campaign to stay in my own home at my age.”

Mrs Pridmore has met representatives from her local council to ask what their plans are.

“I pressed them but they were very cagey, and talked about other ways of providing care which doesn’t involve “hands on” care. I believe they are probably referring to things like people having to use incontinence pads. They are not doing that yet in my local authority but I know that people who have to use these in other areas.”

Lawyers for the six told us they are challenging the Government decision on two grounds.

They say the Government is breaching the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, to which it is a signatory and which includes promises to promote independent living.

They also argue the consultation process carried out before the scheme was axed was “unlawful” because it didn’t provide adequate information on the differences between the fund and the local authority assessment and provision. They also say there hasn’t been proper assessment of the impact of the change on disabled people’s ability to live and work indepdently.

Read the rest on the Channel 4 website.
Read also her story on the DPAC website.

One response to “Update on Anne Pridmore’s fight for the Independent Living Fund”

  1. […] have posted about Anne’s fight for the Independent Living Fund and her case at court. Today it s with a heavy heart when we learnt […]

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