John Harris is right about the lack of attention given to working-age adults with disabilities in discussions about the reform of social care (Shut away and ignored: thousands of disabled adults are at the frontier of the human rights struggle, 19 January). However, to the list of failings I would add the impact of the local authority charges that must be paid by those disabled and chronically ill people who need care in their own homes.
These charges (referred to by some councils as a “contribution”) are determined by a means test. Earned income is exempt from the assessment. But welfare benefits, including most disability benefits, are taken into account. Even those with no savings at all and who are entirely dependent on benefits must pay. When benefits go up, so do the charges – a practice described by one interviewee in my recent master’s research as the state “giving it you with one hand and taking it with the other”.
