Losing out on Freedom Passes

Published: 25 February 2010

• SOME readers have complained that the current renewal of Freedom Passes by Camden Council to old age pensioners and the disabled has been chaotic, but people with mental health problems have been experiencing problems for two and a half years.
For many years Camden’s policy has been to provide Freedom Passes to people who have “severe and enduring mental health problems” because they are prone to isolation and may have difficulty giving or understanding travel directions.
In November 2007 the council changed the test used to determine whether an applicant met the above criteria so that instead of assessing need, only those on Enhanced Care Programme Approach (CPA) could apply.  Enhanced CPA is a process used by mental health services solely for clients who are assigned more than one professional. 
It relates to the allocation of resources and does not establish in itself severity of illness or mobility.
The council used this new test as an artificial device to limit Freedom Pass numbers for vulnerable people. 
At December 2007 there were 2,200 people (30 per cent of the total) who had a Freedom Pass for their mental health problems and in January 2010 there are only 1,400 (22 per cent). 
The eligibility test breached Department of Health guidance Refocusing the CPA published in March 2008. The guidance stated that CPA was a process and should not be used as eligibility criteria to access services, yet it is only now that the council has begun to change its procedures. We are still waiting for guidelines to be issued and forms to be redesigned by the council.
Unfortunately the new test is not much better because an applicant will have to establish that he/she is currently using or has used certain specialist mental health services. A similar minority of people will be entitled to a pass, nowhere near fulfilling the council policy of entitling everyone with severe and enduring mental illness.
Mentally disabled people are being discriminated against by the council because they are treated less favourably than the physically disabled in the way the scheme is operated. The physically disabled only have to prove that they are disabled, but the mentally disabled have to remain in care in order to qualify.
A paraplegic can be disabled after leaving medical care but it seems that a mentally ill person cannot.
The Accessible Transport Department either does not understand the Freedom Pass scheme or has misconstrued it to save money. The council has ignored concerns of the public, government guidance and equality legislation. 
It has, in effect, cheated 800 people out of their entitlement; people who cannot answer back, who probably don’t vote and who can’t easily access legal remedies. 
I am calling on the chief executive to issue a public apology.
JASON ROBERTS
Address supplied, WC1