Petition Save Independent Living Fund from closure ( Save ILF ).

In a Written Statement dated 13 December 2010 the Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Maria Miller) stated that the ILF is "financially unsustainable", was already closed to new applications and that existing recipients were only protected for the life of this Parliament (i.e. 2015). For over 21 years the ILF has made payments to disabled people to be used towards the cost of employing Personal Assistants. This money currently enables over 20,000 disabled people to lead an independent life style. The Governments policy indicates that responsibility for independent living strategies would be passed to Local Authorities. This is unacceptable. The LA's are unlikely to have the funding or the in house expertise to assess the needs of the small numbers of disabled people in their areas who would benefit from the kind of support ILF provides. The ILF does have the expertise and experience so the Government should reverse the decision to close the ILF.