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When her severely disabled son lost the Independent Living Fund in June, Rita Noble wrote to her local MP Iain Duncan Smith.

Her son Jeff’s care package had been cut in half following Duncan Smith’s decision to close down the Fund.

Rita, 75, explained: “His office told us he doesn’t do home visits, you need to come to his surgery.”

Her anger is palpable.

“We can’t come to his surgery, because his surgery isn’t wheelchair accessible. It’s above a shop and there is no lift, and I can hardly manage to bring Jeff anywhere as it is.

“And, because Iain Duncan Smith cut the ILF, I don’t have enough support for Jeff to leave him at home to come in on my own.

"What an absolute disgrace.”

(Image: Ian Vogler/Daily Mirror)

Today, two hours after I contacted Mr Duncan Smith’s office and five months after her letter, Rita received a phone call from his assistant.

It turns out there has been a “mix up” and IDS does do home visits after all. He will be seeing her at her North East London home on Friday evening.

Rita, a grandmother from Waltham Forest with serious heart problems, has spent almost 30 years caring for Jeff, since an accident left him with a brain injury and tetraplegic in 1987.

From 1989 until last June, Jeff also had the support of the ILF, allowing the family to employ outside carers to help.

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Now, theirs is one of 17,000 families from whom the ILF has been torn away.

“Jeff was one of the first recipients,” Rita says. “Now we are living a nightmare.”

From 2013-15, this column ran a long campaign to save the ILF after disabled campaigners said that axing it would be the excuse for a massive cut in support for its recipients.

When the ILF closed, Duncan Smith – the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions – the Chancellor George Osborne and even the Prime Minister all gave guarantees that no disabled people would be worse off.

“We knew that was rubbish,” Rita says.

(Image: Getty)

Figures on all the thousands of people once supported by the Fund across the country are yet to emerge, but an FOI request to Waltham Forest Council by the disabled people’s organisation Inclusion London shows that of 60 ILF recipients, 53 have had their social care reduced.

More than a quarter – 16 people – have received a cut exceeding 50%. This is despite the fact the Government says money is ringfenced until June for former ILF recipients.

Jeff's care package

It has taken since June to get Jeff’s new post-ILF care package sorted out. Now, Rita has learned that, far from the 84 hours help they once had under the ILF, Jeff will get just 41 and a quarter hours.

“In effect, this will be less as they are only giving me £11.10 an hour, where the local care agency charges £15.95.”

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The rest of the time, Rita – who has had a heart bypass, recently had valve surgery and has a string of other health complaints – is supposed to look after Jeff by herself.

“I’m 5ft 1ins,” she says, when I visit their modest, specially adapted flat.

“Jeff is 6ft 2ins. I physically ache all the time. I am out of breath. I have to go to hospital appointments myself. I can’t go on like this.”

Jeff, a 52-year-old collector of model cars, struggles to speak, but when he does, he is angry too.

“It is not good,” he says.

(Image: Ian Vogler/Daily Mirror)

He has a history of running away if left on his own, one time wheeling off from a day centre and into the forest where his wheelchair overturned and his battery ran out.

“The day centre is a s***hole,” he grins.

Rita’s letter to Duncan Smith is heartbreaking. It says the council has told her that Jeff’s current hours “can no longer be justified”.

She writes: “Jeff has had this continuing support for the past 28 years and will not be able to understand or comprehend these changes to his usual routine, which will result in confusion and anger.”

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The brain injury left Jeff with “severe challenging behaviour”, she tells Duncan Smith.

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“Jeff can also place himself in great danger when left unsupervised for any length of time…

“If Jeff’s wheelchair tips to one side, which has happened on several occasions… he has no way of trying to slow or stop the fall, which could eventually result in a fatal injury.”

She concludes the cuts to Jeff’s care “eventually (and unfortunately) will result in my son needing to be cared for in a care home, as I will just not be physically and mentally able to care for him myself”.

A Government spokesman said: “We’ve given the entire £262m ILF budget to local authorities and it’s for them to decide how to administer this funding.”

(Image: Ian Vogler/Daily Mirror)

A Waltham Forest Council spokesman said: “When the Government scrapped its scheme in June last year, it transferred a reduced funding pot to local authorities to pay for adult social care support services.

“In Waltham Forest, this funding has gone into our adult social care budget… This includes former ILF recipients and those vulnerable people who missed out on that funding for so many years.

“Despite continuing to be hit by Government cuts, Waltham Forest is committed to ensuring every vulnerable resident has access to the support services they need to live as independently as possible.”

On Friday night, at least, Iain Duncan Smith will be able to explain to Rita and Jeff how they must survive without the lifeline he tore away.