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At 30 years old, Non Williams is having the time of her life, living with three friends in a shared home near Llanelli in South Wales.

An outgoing, sociable young woman, Non is quadriplegic, has a learning disability and is partially sighted, so her independent life is only possible because of 24-hour support from carers.

This summer that care has been placed in jeopardy. The Government has rightly decided – after two tribunal rulings – that sleep-in care staff should be paid the minimum wage . But it is also insisting up to £400million owed in back-pay comes from employers, many thousands of whom are disabled people and their families.

Non lives in a supported home, and in her case the employer liable is Mencap , which says it is facing the “worst crisis the charity has faced in its 70-year lifetime”. Meanwhile, in an estimated 100,000 other cases, disabled people and their families will be liable for up to £50,000 a family.

“We fully support carers getting the minimum wage during sleep-in shifts,” says Non’s father Wyn, a retired former head of education in Carmarthenshire.

“They do hard, skilled and often undervalued work. But the Government has to step in to pay the back-pay, or supported homes like Non’s will face closure.”

Wyn says Non couldn’t live ­independently without sleep-in care. “She can wake in the night and can’t turn herself over,” he says. “She has sometimes needed to go to hospital in the night. It doesn’t bear thinking about. This is the rest of her life.”

(Image: ROWAN GRIFFITHS)

Wyn and his wife Kathie, a Welsh language teacher, looked after Non at home for 25 years together. But a year after his wife died, Wyn started looking at Non’s future.

“I’m not going to be around forever,” he says. “And it was always our dream that Non would live independently. This has been the perfect home for her. We’ve really watched her blossom. She is a very vibrant person and so happy here.”

The Government changes follow two tribunals that ruled residential care workers who routinely sleep in as part of on-call shifts should be paid the national minimum wage.

Mencap has been paying the National Living Wage for sleep-in staff since April, but says the six-year £400million back-pay bill owed to staff will cause smaller care providers to collapse, families to be bankrupted, and will mean “the end of social care as we know it”.

“The learning disability sector is under threat as never before,” says Mencap chairman Derek Lewis, because of “incorrect guidance” from the Government.

“Care providers are being asked to find £400million from their own resources to fund back-payments,” he says. “Ordinary families, who pay for their own care, are facing personal liabilities of up to £50,000.

“All because the original government interpretation of how care workers should be paid under the National Minimum Wage was wrong.”

In North West England, Shirley, 62, is worried about her son Lloyd, 34, who has a severe learning disability and gets a personal budget from his local authority to pay for 24-hour care.

“Lloyd’s and our family’s life has been transformed by sleep-in support,” Shirley says. “He gets to live in his own house, make his own choices and be as independent as possible.”

(Image: ROWAN GRIFFITHS)

In January, she was told her son’s staff should have been paid the minimum wage for overnight care.

“As Lloyd is classed as the employer he could receive a personal demand of £45,000 back-pay,” she says.

Shirley fully backs Lloyd’s support workers. “They are amazing people who make his new independent life possible,” she says.

“They rightfully came to us earlier this year saying guidance had changed and they should be paid at least the minimum wage for sleep-in shifts and that they are owed six years’ back-pay. They deserve to be paid correctly.”

Shirley she has contacted her local authority several times but received no reply. “I am very disappointed,” she says. “Lloyd’s staff have now taken legal advice. The Government and the local authority need to sort this out. We should not have been placed in this position.”

The Government says it has suspended enforcement action until October 2 – which families say is now just weeks away. It adds that “Government will continue to look at this issue extremely carefully alongside industry representatives to see how it might be possible to minimise any impact on provision of social care.”

Mencap estimates 100,000 other people may be in Lloyd’s situation, while around 80,000 people could be in Non’s. “Non finds even the smallest change very upsetting,” Wyn Williams says.

“My daughter is extremely vulnerable and far from unique. There are thousands of people affected. The hallmark of any civilised society is the way it treats its most vulnerable.”