A fund which supports more than 21,000 people with severe disabilities is to be phased out by 2015.

The £359m Independent Living Fund pays out an average of £300 a week, to help people pay for carers so they can live at home and not in a care home.

It was already shut to new applicants for this year and will now shut to new claims permanently, said the minister for disabled people, Maria Miller.

Payments to existing users are to continue until 2015.

Ms Miller said: "An independent discretionary trust delivering social care is financially unsustainable."

But Richard Hawkes, chief executive of disability charity Scope, said the decision to phase out the fund was "bemusing".

"The fund is comparatively very small and is designed to support disabled people to live at home rather than in care homes," he said.

"It's hard to see how phasing out this fund will do anything but narrow down options and push people towards greater dependence on the state."

The phased closure was described as "foolhardy and lacking in humanity" by Labour peer Lord Morris of Manchester.

Lord Morris, who was the first minister for the disabled, said: "This will not save money. If you make it harder for disabled people to live at home, it will cost more because more of them will have to be in hospitals and other places of full-time care.

"It will mean far more of them having to be in institutional care at far greater cost to the taxpayer."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11985568

That's beyond scummy (not to mention idiotic)

And to think they will still be paying out thousands in benefits to those that dont deserve it.......

Also not claim taxes from those who owe it. I cannot see this being a success.

I actually prefer the idea of living in a (really nice!) care home compared to surviving alone in a small flat. Economies of scale insist that it should be more economical too; one nurse can obviously visit more people in one building compared to them being spread all over the county. Likewise the meals on wheels only need a trolley rather than an armada of vans.

Seriously. Being trapped in my flat with a health visitor once a week sounds like hell, compared to the OAP retirement Party that could be a well run home.

f*ck "independence". I want to be looked after and socialise with like minded old perverts groping at the hot nurses.

My ex worked at a nursing home. There weren't any hot nurses. Including her

And not paying benefits out to those that do. It's all a bit of a mess to put it mildly.

Yes but these people will not be in the do not deserve it category at all. What is not considered is that many people will have had months of assessment before they get such help anyway.