Independent living: the real and present danger

Abstract

Since 1996, people in the United Kingdom have been able to take cash to manage their own support to live life on terms equal to others–the concept at the core of independent living. This level of provision is now under attack. Levels of payments are being cut. Some disabled people are being forced into institutional care. Austerity is commonly blamed, but the facts do not support this. More likely is a change in attitudes. The positive sentiment of councils towards this form of provision may be evaporating. Only a fundamental systemic change is likely to halt the slide. The identification and costing of all needs for independent living should be a legal right, exposing the gap in funding. Feeding this information into the democratic decision-making process is the essential condition to making manifest the United Nations concept of ‘progressive realisation’ of the resources required for all to have independent living.