• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About DNS
  • Subscribe to DNS
  • Advertise with DNS
  • Support DNS
  • Contact DNS

Disability News Service

the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues

  • Home
  • Independent Living
    • Arts, Culture and Sport
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Employment
    • Housing
    • Transport
  • Activism & Campaigning
  • Benefits & Poverty
  • Politics
  • Human Rights
You are here: Home / News Archive / Bill changes ‘will empower disabled people’

Bill changes ‘will empower disabled people’

By guest on 30th October 2009 Category: News Archive

Listen

Changes to a government bill that should give disabled people more control over the support they receive from the state will deliver a real boost to their independence and inclusion in society, according to a disabled peer.

Baroness [Jane] Campbell was speaking during the Lords report stage of the welfare reform bill, which includes measures to create a “right to control” for disabled people.

Right to control (RTC) will put state funds from programmes such as access to work, the independent living funds and disabled students’ allowances into personal budgets – single pots of money – for disabled people to use as they wish.

RTC will be piloted by a small number of “trailblazing” councils, before the government decides whether to roll it out nationally.

But thanks to amendments proposed by Lord McKenzie, the junior work and pensions minister – following discussions this summer with Baroness Campbell and the disability charity RADAR – the pot of money will now also include funds from local authority care services.

And further government amendments, proposed by Baroness Crawley – again following discussions with Baroness Campbell and RADAR – mean disabled people will be more firmly at the centre of the RTC process.

Councils will have to tell a disabled person of their “right to control” and how much money is available for their support, and work with them to ensure their support plan “reflects their individual needs and ambitions”.

Baroness Campbell, who was praised for her role in helping draft the amendments, said RTC “has the potential to empower disabled people to become more active socially and economically by putting them in the driving seat of their support”.

She said: “There are hard times ahead for everyone who needs extra support to engage in their communities.

“More than ever, we need the right to control that support so that every penny is spent on what we know – what disabled people know – will make us independent and ready to take our part in society.”

She said both sets of amendments “take us towards that goal”, and she praised Lord McKenzie and his officials “for showing not only how co-production can be done, but actually genuinely doing it”.

The disabled peer Baroness [Celia] Thomas, a Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokeswoman, said the amendments “herald a real shift in power from the state to disabled people and pave the way for the right to control to become the genuine one-stop empowerment shop that we all want it to be”.

The amendments were also backed by Lord Freud, for the Conservatives.

28 October 2009

Share this post:

Share on X (Twitter)Share on FacebookShare on WhatsAppShare on RedditShare on LinkedIn
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Related

‘Muddled’ blue badge reforms ‘are to blame for renewal delays’
6th February 2015
UN debate will be reminder of true inclusive education
6th February 2015
IDS breaks pledge on PIP waiting-times, as tens of thousands still queue for months
30th January 2015

Primary Sidebar

On the left of the image are multiple heads of different colours - white, aqua, red, light brown, and dark green - all grouped together, then the words ‘Campaign for Disability Justice. Sign up to support. #OpportunitySecurityRespect’
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Access

Latest Stories

Government ignores warnings of new DWP deaths, and UN intervention, as MPs pass universal credit cuts bill

Urgent letter from UN to Labour government warns: We think your cuts continue Tory attack on disability rights

Race against time to secure DWP deaths evidence before parliament passes new benefit cuts bill

‘Complete shift in thinking’ needed on education of disabled children, says ALLFIE

Minister ignored concerns from disabled advisers, months before publishing cuts bill

Frustration after government only issues partial ban on new floating bus stops

Report suggests five big ideas that could transform disabled people’s mobility

My new book shows exactly why we need the disability movement, says disabled author

‘Disastrous’ cuts bill that leaves legacy of distrust and distress ‘must be dropped’

Four disabled Labour MPs stand up to government over cuts to disability benefits

Advice and Information

Readspeaker
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Footer

The International Standard Serial Number for Disability News Service is: ISSN 2398-8924

  • Accessibility Statement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site map
  • Bluesky
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Threads
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2025 Disability News Service

Site development by A Bright Clear Web