Responding to today’s Budget
A budget is a plan where you look at how much money you have and how you will spend it. , Edel Harris, Chief Executive of the UK’s leading learning disability
A learning disability is to do with the way someone's brain works. It makes it harder for someone to learn, understand or do things. Mencap, said:
“We are disappointed that the Chancellor barely mentioned social care
Social care means the services that give care and support to people who need it. .
"Social care reform is just as much of a grand project as any infrastructure scheme and, if we get it right, could have an even longer legacy.
"However, the current system needs a large cash injection to stabilise it first so that it can withstand the scale of change needed to make it truly sustainable for the future.”
Read the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s 2020 Budget in full here.
-ENDS-
For further information, contact Mencap’s media team:
- email media@mencap.org.uk
- phone 020 7696 5414 (including out of hours).
Notes to editors
About Mencap
There is approximately 1.5 million people with a learning disability in the UK.
Mencap works to support people with a learning disability, their families and carers by fighting to change laws, improve services and access to
education
Education is when you learn things. When you fill in a form to get a job, education means you write where you went to school, college or university.
,
employment
Employment means having a job.
and
leisure
Leisure is when you have time to do things you enjoy like playing sports or going to the pub.
facilities.
Mencap supports thousands of people with a learning disability to live their lives the way they want.
Visit: www.mencap.org.uk.
For advice and information about learning disability and Mencap services in your area, contact Mencap’s freephone Learning Disability Helpline:
- phone 0808 808 1111 (9am-3pm, Monday-Friday)
- email helpline@mencap.org.uk.
What is a learning disability?
- A learning disability is a reduced intellectual ability which can cause problems with everyday tasks – for example shopping and cooking, or travelling to new places – which affects someone for their whole life
- Learning disability is not a mental illness or a learning difficulty, such as
dyslexia
Dyslexia is a learning difficulty. People who have dyslexia can find it hard to read, write and spell.
. Very often the term ‘learning difficulty’ is wrongly used interchangeably with ‘learning disability’ - People with a learning disability can take longer to learn new things and may need support to develop new skills, understand difficult information and engage with other people. The level of support someone needs is different with every individual. For example, someone with a severe learning disability might need much more support with daily tasks than someone with a mild learning disability.