Any further news on this?

[mikeymack2002]

Although this was first published back in December '15 I haven't seen any more on this story has anyone else?

 

 

 

 

'Ministers plan to give local councils responsibility for a £5bn benefit paid to older people who need help with daily living in one of the biggest shifts of resources within the welfare state for 25 years.

 

The move, expected to be signalled as early as Thursday, when councils in England get news of their grant allocation for next year, has also raised fears that the benefit – called attendance allowance (AA) – could be restricted or capped.

 

At present, AA is paid to 1.5 million people aged 65 or over in the UK, regardless of their personal means. It is seen as a vital support for hundreds of thousands who live independently but might otherwise need to go into residential care'.

 

'Caroline Abrahams, charity director of Age UK, said: “Attendance allowance fulfils a real need. We would be very worried if it [were] to go to fewer people as a result of any transfer.”

 

 

Story from here >> http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/dec/17/5bn-social-care-shifts-local-government-attendance-allowance and it showed up in the RSS feeds again today...

[Mr.P]

I wouldn't be at all surprised if a) the councils used the money to prop up services in other areas. b) Central government cut the overall sums paid to each council under other headings.

[Nystagmite]

This has come up once or twice on a few FB groups. However, because most of us are under 65, no-one has really looked into it. I did, however, find this

 

I won't be surprised if they did do this. But what happens to those who don't get help from the council, and instead use AA to pay their friends or family for care?

[reallymadwoman]

It will be another case of short term gain, long term pain.

 

Bedroom tax - people forced to move because they can't pay their rent but there aren't any council properties available so they have to rent privately which is much more expensive, so for the sake of saving £14 a week, it ends up costing £50 a week.

ESA - spend millions on a new benefit and assessments to save absolutely nothing as whatever the short term gains from denying people benefit were, it's now costing more to assess them than any saving they might make. It would actually be cheaper to just pay the claims so long as a GP will keep issuing a fit note!

PIP - people losing their cars so they can no longer get themselves to work and either have to claim 1000s in taxi fares instead or give up work and claim benefits.

Older people losing their attendance allowance so they either have to get help from the council or go into care. I'm willing to bet it's cheaper to pay 20 people attendance allowance than it is to pay care home fees for one, but who cares so long as the benefit bill looks smaller.