Reforms risk interacting "in particularly harmful way" for disabled people, say MPs and peers

Government reforms to benefits and services risk leaving disabled people without the support they need to live independently, a Parliamentary committee has warned.

The Joint Committee on Human Rights warned that restrictions in local authority eligibility criteria for social care support, the replacement of the Disability Living Allowance with Personal Independence Payment, the closure of the Independent Living Fund and changes to housing benefit “risk interacting in a particularly harmful way” for disabled people.

“Some people fear that the cumulative impact of these changes will force them out of their homes and local communities and into residential care,” the JCHR report, Implementation of the Right of Disabled People to Independent Living, said.

The MPs and peers called on the government to examine whether the right to independent living should be established as a freestanding right in UK law.

The committee said the right is currently protected and promoted to some extent by a matrix of rights, but argued that this was not enough.

The report concluded that the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) – Article 19 of which enshrines the right of disabled people to independent living – was hard law, and urged the government to fulfil its obligations on that basis and “counter any public perception that it is soft law”.

The JCHR report also called on ministers to conduct an assessment of the cumulative impact of its current reforms on disabled people, and report on the extent to which they enabled government and local authorities to comply with their obligations under the UNCRPD.

The committee meanwhile criticised changes to the duties of public authorities in England under the Equality Act 2010, which it said no longer required the production of equality impact assessments of changes in policy, nor the involvement of disabled people in developing policies which will affect them.

Other key findings in the report included:

• The Government needed to take further action to ensure that assessments for care needs are portable across the country. This was to ensure disabled people’s right to choose their place of residence;
• A growing incidence of hate crime against disabled people. The report urged the Government to take action to foster respect for the rights and dignity of disabled people;
• There were variations in the manner in which the devolved administrations have implemented the UNCRPD, and uncertainty as to the role the UK Government should play in ensuring implementation;
• There was a “disappointing” lack of a strategy in Northern Ireland to promote independent living. The UK Government needed to acknowledge its responsibility to ensure implementation.

JCHR chairman, Dr Hywel Francis MP, said: "We are concerned to learn that the right of disabled people to independent living may be at risk through the cumulative impact of current reforms. Even though the UK ratified the UNCPRD in 2009 with cross-party support, the Government is unable to demonstrate that sufficient regard has been paid to the Convention in the development of policy with direct relevance to the lives of disabled people.

“The right to independent living in UK law may need to be strengthened further, and we call on the Government and other interested organisations to consider the need for a freestanding right to independent living in UK law."

A copy of the JCHR report can be viewed here.