Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether local authorities in England are continuing to receive the former Independent Living Fund recipient grant announced in May 2016; and how the spending of this grant is being monitored.

Local authorities in England are continuing to receive the former Independent Living Fund (ILF) recipient grant announced in May 2016.

At the time of the ILF’s closure there were agreed support packages for English ILF users amounting to £186 million for 2015/16. To calculate the on-going funding, set out in the following table, the Government used the now-closed ILF Trust’s financial model that predicted that commitments will decline year on year, as former users no longer need access to funding.

Although this funding is not ring-fenced, the Government is providing funding to allow councils to continue to fund care packages to former ILF users. It is local authorities who are best placed to decide how best to provide funding and support to their local citizens.