Brighton and Hove City Council takes families' disability support money
- Published
The council pays money into a shared account which families can then use to pay for services for their disabled children
Parents of children with disabilities have had money they use to pay for support services taken away from them by a council.
Families receive direct payments into an account accessible to them and Brighton and Hove City Council on a weekly basis.
The authority removed any money above six weeks' worth of payments from the accounts to be redistributed.
The council has apologised for its approach in taking the money.
Families said they received less than one week's notice that the money would be taken.
One family said they had been saving the money to pay for personal assistants so that they could take their children on holiday, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
The Labour MP for Hove, Peter Kyle, said that he would raise the issue in parliament.
Mr Kyle said: "This is a big deal for families. The removal of the money is one issue. The cold method of doing so is another.
"It's not acceptable and I'm taking this to the highest level of government."
'Particularly challenging' timing
The letters from the council were dated 15 October but families said they had received their copies two weeks later.
The letters said: "We know direct payments are really important in supporting families at home but we need to make the best use of all money available."
The chief executive of specialist Brighton disability charity Amaze, Sally Polanski, said Parent Carers' Council (PaCC) representatives would be meeting council officials to discuss the situation.
She said: "This is a concern and the timing is particularly challenging, given the wider context of families being under immense pressure and the social care system struggling."
One mother, who wanted to remain anonymous, said she had built up the surplus as she struggled to find a personal assistant for her son who cannot speak and has complex needs.
Another said she wanted to use the money for respite care.
A council spokesman said: "We would like to apologise for the concerns our approach to reclaiming surplus money held in the direct payments accounts has caused.
He said postal strikes were the likely cause of the delay in letters arriving with families, saying the council would be working with PaCC.
"We have no intention of leaving parents out of pocket for the services they commission.
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