‘Don’t hand control of funds to councils’

Councils should not be given control over independent living funds, a disability charity warned last week as a government review started into how allocations are made.

There is now one national assessment process for the funds but Richard Parnell, head of research at Scope, said local authorities would apply different eligibility criteria and this could lead to a postcode lottery for disabled people.

The review has been asked to decide whether the funds should continue as now, what changes are needed and what should replace them if they are scrapped.