The following details have been supplied by the PCS DWP Group:

PCS members will have been concerned to read in the press that the Government has taken a decision to trial the “devolution” of Attendance Allowance to local authorities.

Members will also know that the Government’s austerity programme means huge numbers of councils lack the money and staff to discharge even those services for which they are currently responsible.

Attendance Allowance is currently paid to 1.5 million people aged 65 or over. It is seen as a vital support for hundreds of thousands of people who live independently but who otherwise might need to go into residential care. To hand over this service without ring-fencing it, as the Government proposes to do, is to set it up for huge cuts on the same scale as those suffered by Adult Social Care and Youth Services. PCS opposes all cuts.

We will be raising the future of the Attendance Allowance unit with national management at the meeting scheduled for February 8^th, though there is absolutely no suggestion that the AA unit in Blackpool is under any kind of threat.