Aspire welcomes the recommendations in the Low Review which have been published following a twelve-week consultation period looking into how disabled people who live in residential care meet their mobility needs.

The Welfare Reform Bill, which is yet to become law, contains powers to remove the mobility component payments of the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) (which will be replaced by the Personal Independence Payment) to people who live in residential care.

In September 2011, Aspire encouraged people living in residential care to respond to the independent Low Review. The Low Review is running parallel to a separate Review that is being conducted by government internally to look into this issue.

In our response to government in a consultation on Disability Living Allowance reform, we said:

“Aspire is disappointed with the government’s intention to carry out the measure announced in the Comprehensive Spending Review 2010 of removing the mobility component of DLA to people who live in care homes. This will affect many people with spinal cord injury who live in care homes, often against their will. The mobility component helps people in care homes to go shopping, meet friends and family and attend job interviews.”

A reason cited by senior members of the government for this proposed change was that mobility costs for people in care homes was a duplicated provision and that mobility needs were already met by other parts of the state. Aspire has never believed this to be the case.

The results of the Low Review have been published and it has “found no evidence of overlap in the support offered by the mobility component of DLA and that offered by local authorities and providers, all of which play a distinct part in meeting disabled people’s mobility needs.”

We urge the government to take the findings of the Low Review on board and ensure that disabled people living in state-funded residential care receive mobility payments on the same basis as disabled people receiving care in their own home.