Five disabled people have won their attempt to overturn the government's abolition of a £300m fund that helps severely disabled people to "live a full life" in the community.
The independent living fund (ILF) helps 18,500 severely disabled people in Britain to hire a carer or personal assistant to provide round-the-clock care and enable them to work and live independent lives. The government proposed that the ILF be scrapped in 2015, and its resources transferred to local authorities.
But a court of appeal ruling found that the government had breached its equality duty in failing to properly assess what one of the judges called the "very grave impact" of the closure on disabled people.
Lawyers acting for the five claimants said the judgment, quashing the ministerial decision to close the fund as unlawful, was "of major importance not just for the claimants, but for all disabled people".
They said the ruling made clear that legal requirements that ministers actively minimise the disadvantages suffered by disabled people and encourage their participation in public life, could not be treated as optional even in times of austerity.
One of the five claimants, Gabriel Pepper, from Walthamstow, east London, accused the government of imposing "appalling cuts", which were "a vicious attack on the disabled". Another claimant, Paris L'Amour, said: "This is an amazing breakthrough and an incredible outcome."
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