disability benefits and social care charges

[wanderingalien]

• When councils are deciding whether there are contributions towards services/charities like therapy, life skills or independent living programmes for someone below pension age, the council want to do a financial assessment and take any disability benefits into account. This is the same for both Scotland and England.

They don't seem to take into account:

• Does this person have any realistic prospect of increasing their income?
• Are they permanently unable to work?
• Do they have family able to help financially?
• Does taking this income reduce their ability to participate in society?

They leave a minimal amount called the minimum income guarantee, and disregard disability related expenses. The MIG is protected income that the council must leave you with after calculating your care charge - the amount is set at a level that the government considers to cover ordinary living costs. From what I can see they only seem to take into account specific disability related expenses that they approve rather than spending on:

• hobbies,
• social activities,
• entertainment,
• holidays,
• activities that improve mental wellbeing,
• maintaining relationships or preventing isolation.

which are all so important as well.

Disability rights UK agree that social care costs shouldn't come out of disability benefits Social care | Disability Rights UK

Well it would be lovely if everyone in the world had spare money for all those things but who is going to pay for it? People have to make choices. We can’t cope with the ever growing numbers of people who demand services. Councils simply don’t have the money. It’s not there.

It's barbaric to leave people without the means to maintain relationships and look after their own wellbeing let alone pay for the things they need to manage their conditions/disabilities. Totally, unequivocally wrong. Especially when the average person in the UK goes on 4 holidays a year with the upper half of the population going on 5, 6, 7 or even 8 holidays a year. The amount of money needed to give a few working age disabled people in receipt of care (and they're a relatively small group), a very basic standard of living and some basic choices about their own lives is relatively small. Many comparable countries spend significantly more of their national income on welfare without it having destroyed their economies. I think the current situation is indefensible and agree that change is needed