Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nSir Ed Davey on the general election campaign trail<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n\n
Social care is at the heart of leader Sir Ed Davey\u2019s plans. The Liberal Democrats want to reform PIP to stop \u201cunnecessary reassessments\u201d and give disabled people the right to work from home.<\/p>\n
It wants to have a mental health professional in every school, bring an end to \u201cout-of-area\u201d mental health placements so people can be treated near home, and introduce one-hour targets for police to hand over someone experiencing a mental health crisis to the relevant service.<\/p>\n
Many disabled people have care packages but report a lack of carers to employ. According to the King\u2019s Fund think tank, in 2022\/23 there were 152,000 vacancies, or 9.9% of available roles.<\/p>\n
As well as providing free personal care (Scotland already has this), the Lib Dems want to introduce a minimum wage for carers, \u00a32 an hour above the national minimum wage, and establish a Royal College of Care Workers.<\/p>\n
Sir Ed says this will total about \u00a33.7bn annually. He plans to pay for it by promising to reverse tax cuts the Conservatives have given to the big banks since 2016.<\/p>\n
More or Less<\/b>: Sir Ed\u2019s plan includes spending an extra \u00a32.7bn a year on free personal care by 2028\/29. That sounds like a lot but the Health Foundation, the independent charity, estimates it would cost more than twice as much.<\/p>\n
The party says it would take into account other money in the system, referring to the Conservatives\u2019 delayed plan to introduce a lifetime cap on personal care of \u00a386,000, due to be introduced next year.<\/p>\n
That hasn\u2019t stopped the Lib Dems using it as a building block for their proposed upgrade, and have suggested it will provide \u00a33.6bn a year towards their plans.<\/p>\n
The Conservatives are still committed to this cap, but the Institute for Fiscal Studies says the funding set aside for this has already been absorbed into the current care system.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Scottish National Party<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n\n\n
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Marion Fellows is the disabilities spokesperson for the SNP<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n\n
The SNP manifesto contains one sentence on disabled people: \u201cScrap proposed punitive welfare reforms for sick and disabled.\u201d<\/p>\n
This most likely relates to the Conservative plan to tighten up the criteria for Work Capability Assessment, which looks at how capable people are of working. The Tories want to reduce those being assessed by 424,000 by 2028\/29.<\/p>\n
Some benefits including both child and adult disability payments are devolved to Scotland.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe look at benefits as something people are entitled to,\u201d Marion Fellows, the party\u2019s disabilities spokesperson says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also fund free prescriptions, we\u2019ve introduced a child payment for impoverished families where 100,000 children have been lifted out of poverty.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only way to get anything done in the UK parliament, if you are not in power, is to work with other parties and to push the agenda forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
More or Less<\/b>: Ms Fellows mentioned 100,000 children have been lifted out of poverty due to the Scottish Child Payment. This claim comes from a Scottish government report, which predicted the future impact of policies compared with what might have happened without them – the difference between them is the number we\u2019re interested in.<\/p>\n
The report acknowledged it relied on a lot of assumptions and, while the report predicts Scottish government policies as a whole will keep 100,000 children out of relative poverty, the Scottish Child Payment related to 60,000 children.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Green Party<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n\n\n
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Mags Lewis is the disability spokesperson for the Green Party<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n\n
The Greens want to put mental health care on a \u201ctruly equal footing with physical health\u201d by offering therapies within 28 days and providing trained counsellors in every school and sixth form college.<\/p>\n
The party wants to create a \u201ccareer structure for carers\u201d and offer free personal care with an investment of \u00a320bn per year.<\/p>\n
The Green Party\u2019s Mags Lewis says it wants to \u201crestore the value of disabled benefits\u201d with a 5% rise \u201cimmediately\u201d. A bill paid for by a windfall tax on some fossil fuels and \u201ctaxing the billionaires\u201c.<\/p>\n
The Greens also want to provide another 150,000 social houses a year, with \u201ca good proportion\u201d being accessible.<\/p>\n
More or Less:<\/b> The current government has consistently missed its targets to build 300,000 homes annually since 2019.<\/p>\n
The Green Party doesn\u2019t promise to build 150,000 social homes a year, just provide them. It proposes local authorities could buy or refurbish older housing stock, which were likely built before accessibility regulations came in.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n