Hello, Several points. 1. This is not a hoax. You may not agree with the benefitsandwork website's perspective on the green paper but the green paper does propose taking the money that is currently given to people in the form of attendance allowance and giving it to social services instead. I quote from the green paper below after my name. And if this option is adopted I doubt DLA would be treated differently as it is a similar benefit to AA and AA is just used as an example here. 2. The benefitsandwork website is one I've used before to find information about benefits. It's a genuine website and I'm pretty sure is not just set up to gather e-mail addresses, though of course you may have disagreements with the organisation or its practices. 3. There are consultation events being organised for the green paper. You can find out about them and other ways of taking part in the consultation at http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Consultations/Liveconsultations/DH_102339 Catherine Quoted from the green paper: Attendance Allowance is the main disability benefit for older people. It is available to anyone who has a care need that develops at or after the age of 65. Attendance Allowance operates in parallel with the social care system for those aged 65 and over. Attendance Allowance is not a benefit paid to replace lost income: it is intended for broadly the same purposes as social care – to contribute to the extra disability-related costs of those individuals who need assistance to live independently. Like social care, Attendance Allowance is subject to increasing funding pressures. But Attendance Allowance is not means-tested, so people get it regardless of how well-off they are. Many disabled older people will receive support from other parts of the benefits system, including through Disability Living Allowance, instead of Attendance Allowance. We know that disability benefits such as Attendance Allowance are highly valued by the people who receive them, and that they give people control over how they spend their money to meet their care and support needs. However, we also recognise that there are inconsistencies of approach between disability benefits and social care within the current system. This is because the social care and disability benefits systems have developed in isolation from each other and these two largest portions of government care and support expenditure are being allocated on different bases. This can lead to inconsistent and unfair outcomes. Having two different funding streams also means that older people have to apply separately for the two sources of support and undergo different needs assessment processes which may put people off applying for support. This can result in some people not receiving all of the support they are entitled to. ... The 2006 report by the King’s Fund, Securing Good Care for Older People, highlighted these and other problems in the system and made the case for integrating the support provided through some disability benefits and the social care system to improve the effectiveness of state funding. The review recommended that, if the social care system were able to mostly meet the care needs of people who may currently only be supported through the disability benefits system, there would be less need for some of these benefits, and there might be a case for integrating some disability benefits such as Attendance Allowance into the care and support system. Building on the strengths of the current system However, we also know that for many people the flexibility currently provided by disability benefits such as Attendance Allowance is not delivered through the current care system. Developing more personal budgets would be one way to better build on the advantages of the Attendance Allowance regime. On 8/6/09, william lomas <lomaswilliam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > it won't go through anyways why would the government care what we > think they would put it through now, why wait so i don't think it will > work > > On 6 Aug 2009, at 13:12, Patricia Fraser wrote: > >> Just a note about the Green Paper - you can access PDFs here: >> >> http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_102338 >> >> That link will probably wrap, so here's the TinyURL: >> >> http://tinyurl.com/nmptmg >> >> Hope this helps, >> -- >> Patricia Fraser Tel: +44 (0)160 470 5680 >> International Sales Manager Fax: +44 (0)870 705 9646 >> Quantum Technology UK Web: www.quantech.com.au >> 47 Thomas Chapman Grove Company Reg. 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