A CAMPAIGNER from Yate is leading the fight across South Gloucestershire to stop the government from closing a fund that supports disabled people.


Clare Gray, 46, a specialist disability coordinator, set up the Independent Living Fund Action Group in September last year after the government announced it would scrap the Independent Living Fund (ILF) on June 30.


The ILF provides money to help disabled people live an independent life in the community rather than in residential care, by means of employing a carer or personal assistant to give personal and domestic care or to pay for a care agency to provide personal care and help with domestic duties.

In March 2014 the Minister for Disabled People announced that the ILF will be closing in June and that from July 1 the funding and responsibility of ILF care and support needs will transfer to local authorities in England and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.


Miss Gray, who lives in Yate, said: “As a disabled person, who receives funding from the ILF, the news really concerned me. My life will be at risk once the funding stops with many others.


“I set up the group in September last year and we around around 50 people now in involved in it and we are are very concerned about the government and the way they are going and their priorities with cutbacks.


“We held a meeting December last year where we invited representatives from political parties and social services to attend but only Labour party came along which was very disappointing. I feel like the parties are so focussed on the election that they are not interested in helping us until it is over.
“This is a national issue and it’s going to affect a lot of people.


“We have been campaigning and some people are saying that there is still time to change the decision.”


Member of the campaign group Caroline Lines, 51, from Downend, said: “I have been severely disabled for over 20 years after being a victim of domestic violence.


“Before receiving the ILF I was completely housebound, with two young children, in need of a lot of help and support. My social worker explained the ILF to me one day and sent through an application for me and I started getting the fund in 2002. It made a huge difference to my life, paying for personal assistants to help me for 52 hours a week, from helping with washing to personal hygiene.


“If the ILF is cut off, my life will change and it will take away my independence.


“I am worried that if it is taken away, a lot of people who rely on it will also end up in residential care.”


The government group behind the ILF states on its website that the fund is permanently closed to new applications and that: “Our priority remains to provide an excellent service to our users until the ILF closes.”


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