Disability activists are urging the government to reconsider proposed changes to social care funding.
MPs will debate the Health and Care Act, which includes plans to exempt Council means-tested support payments from a new lifetime cost cap of £86,000.
A charity says it is “morally unfair” to make people with disabilities pay for their care.
The government says the plans strike a balance between people paying for their own needs and taxpayer help.
Around a quarter of a million adults under the age of 65 are on welfare, according to the NHS.
MPs narrowly voted in favor of the Health and Care Bill last November – despite a significant Tory rebellion.
But the House of Lords has since sent the bill back to the House of Commons with changes to how the £86,000 cap works.
One change, due to be debated on Wednesday, concerns a change in how care costs count toward the cap.
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Activists want the £86,000 to be made up of contributions from local authority and individuals, rather than just what individuals pay themselves.
They say that if only a person’s individual contribution counts toward the cap, some disabled working-age adults could pay for the cost of their care for a lifetime, with younger disabled adults being particularly affected.
Baroness Jane Campbell, who has campaigned for many years to reform how disabled adults are billed for their care, says the proposals mean young disabled people who have had little or no opportunity to save money will get less protection than they don’t disabled people. who may not need social care until much later in life.
“Disabled people are confronted with this charge from the age of 18,” she says. “Charging every young person with a bill of £86,000 that they have to pay for the rest of their lives is not a good start in life. This was the government’s only chance to improve for disabled people and it didn’t do it.”
According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, disabled adults of working age are more than twice as likely to live in poverty than others when disability benefits are deducted from their income.
The government says it will introduce a more generous means-test limit, meaning more people will be eligible for state support for the cost of their care. The reforms are fair and give people security and confidence to plan their future.
Author and freelance writer Chloe Timms, 33, is hoping for future success that will one day allow her to move out of her parents’ home in Kent and live independently. But she says the finances are a “huge burden” on her.
Chloe has Spinal Muscular Atrophy and needs help with everyday tasks like washing and dressing. She also uses expensive equipment such as a wheelchair.
Under current rules, she only makes a small contribution to her care as she has no more than £23,250 in savings – at which point she would have to pay for all of her care.
Under the new proposals, people with savings of between £20,000 and £100,000 will have to contribute towards their care, but the amount someone pays for their care depends on how much savings a person has.
The Government says no one will be made worse off by the proposals, so Chloe should be able to build up more savings than in the past – but she believes that as a young person who needs support to live and work, the opportunity to Saving is not as absent as for non-disabled people.
If she saves more, she puts in more – and makes it difficult for her to save for a deposit: “You feel worthless because that’s not an experience that a non-disabled person has,” she says.
“I couldn’t work without my care, but when I earn more and achieve more, it’s almost like a punishment. The reality is I can’t keep savings, I can’t save for my future.”
Jackie O’Sullivan, of learning disabilities charity Mencap, said: “Welfare services urgently need reform, but these care cap proposals do not solve the problems faced by working-age adults with disabilities and they need to be reconsidered. ”
Disability Rights UK CEO Kamran Mallick said: “There is no doubt that social care is in dire need of reform.
If MPs vote in favor of the change, the government plans to introduce the £86,000 cap from October 2023.
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