HC Deb 20 January 1993 vol 217 c293W
Sir John Hannam

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how the limit for establishing the cost of a placement in a residential or nursing home will be set under the proposed arrangements for the replacement of the independent living fund; who will assess the needs of a disabled person requiring personal assistance over the level; whether the cash payment from the new fund will be claimed by the individual or the local authority; and whether the expertise required by the administrators of the new fund will be the same as that required by the administrators of the fund continuing for existing ILF claimants.

Mr. Scott

The means by which the costs of a placement in residential or nursing care will be assessed for the purposes of the body that will replace the independent living fund are still being considered. An announcement will be made in due course.

The needs of a disabled person who applies to the new body will be assessed and agreed by the local authority, by social workers employed by the successor body, and by the disabled person themselves.

The cash payment from the new body will be paid to the individual. The question of whether the individual or the local authority should make the application is under consideration.

The expertise required by the administrators of the new body will be broadly similar to that required by those administering the fund for existing cases because both bodies have the same fundamental aims. Operational details of the new body are still under discussion.

Sir John Hannam

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what provision will be made between now and April for people who would previously have been eligible for funding from the independent living fund who require funding over the level provided by the local authority; and what provision there is for people whose local authority is unable to make appropriate personal assistance provision between now and April.

Mr. Scott

Those people should approach their local authorities, whose duties to provide services to disabled people are unchanged.