Are they allowed to do that?

Local authorities seem to be cutting the help and support given to disabled people in many ways.

The support you get may be in the form of:

• direct help from Social Services;
• help at home provided by an outside organisation such as support workers from an agency;
• other services such as day centres or short breaks;
• money to arrange your own support. This is known as direct payments or sometimes a personal or individual budget. This may be to employ your own staff to come and help you at home or to buy any other type of service.

Here we look at some of the most common ways that local authorities are cutting support and explain what you can do about it - click on the statement below that best matches your situation to get started:

• “They’ve reassessed my needs and the help they’re offering is not enough!”

• “My needs haven’t changed but they want to change my care package to make it cheaper!”

• “They have given me direct payments to arrange my own care but it’s not enough to pay for the help I need!”

• “The local authority has changed its rules about what help it will provide and now I’m not eligible!”

• “They are going to charge me more than I can afford!”