Defending Attendance Allowance
In July 2009 the Government published a social care Green Paper, Shaping the future of care together to address the challenge of growing demands on England's social care system. This paper has its pluses and minuses and, together with four other sight loss organisations, RNIB submitted a full response.
One very big minus was the proposal that Attendance Allowance (AA) should be abolished and the money used to help plug the gap in funding for social care.
RNIB agrees that this gap needs to be plugged - but not at the expense of AA. We are very strongly opposed to the loss of this important benefit.
Why do we feel so strongly?
Attendance Allowance is a non-means-tested benefit that helps people over the age of 65 with the extra costs of disability. If somebody meets the conditions, they get the benefit and can spend it as they wish - all the advantages of an individual budget. Currently over 53,000 blind and partially sighted people receive AA.
If AA were dissolved into the social care "kitty", these funds would become means-tested, cash-limited and rationed. Without a national legally defined entitlement, they would also be vulnerable to future Treasury "raids", under cover of "efficiency savings". And if anything like the current rationing system were in place, many blind and partially sighted people would be excluded altogether.
The Government says that existing claimants would be protected. But that isn't the point - this whole debate is about the future.
Are other benefits also threatened?
The Green Paper says "for example Attendance Allowance". This seems to mean that Attendance Allowance is definitely under threat and Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for people age 65 and over might be, although DLA for under-65s has recently been declared safe by Ministers. RNIB would be strongly opposed to the loss of any of these benefits.
What is RNIB doing to defend these benefits?
We have told the Government very clearly why this measure would be very bad news for blind and partially sighted people, both in our response to the Green Paper and at every other opportunity. We are working with other organisations in campaigning against its abolition. And we are collecting evidence on the difference that AA makes to the lives of people with sight loss.
What can I do?
The Green Paper consultation period is over, but the campaign goes on. If you get Attendance Allowance yourself, or know someone who does, tell your MP what you or they spend it on and would miss out on if it wasn't there.
You can let the Government know your views by
Please copy us into what you say by emailing gfimister@rnib.org.uk or writing to Geoff Fimister, Campaigns Team, RNIB, 105 Judd St., London, WC1H 9NE.
Further Information
If you would like any further information you can contact us by phone on 020 7391 2123 or by email campaign@rnib.org.uk