FUNDING for adults with disabilities could be cut.

Around 10,000 Kirklees families or affected organisations have been sent questionnaires asking them what the impact would be if funding was to stop for services such as day care.

But they are being given only two weeks to respond to the planned moves.

Kirklees Council accepts the proposals affect some of the area’s most vulnerable people.

For some families, day care is the only respite they get.

One of those who could be affected is 35-year-old Anthony Booth of Oakes and his parents Jennifer, 52, and Graham, 53.

Anthony was brain damaged at birth and for the last 12 years he has attended the Day Opportunities scheme at the Highfields Centre at Edgerton four days a week.

On Monday he was sent home with a letter which said: “Kirklees Council has been thinking that it will continue to fully meet the needs of those people who are assessed as critical and stop funding those people who are assessed as substantial.”

Anthony’s mum Jennifer said: “I’m hoping everyone will fill in their form regardless of their own needs and help all others in their situation fight it.

“If a library was to close you’d get thousands of signatures against it but only people with disabilities and their families will know about this.

“I worry that the least supported cause is going to get cut, even though many people will not even be told about this.”

She said the impact on her family, including Anthony’s sisters Nichola, 26, and Sarah, 23, would be massive but is second to the loss Anthony would feel.

“For us, it offers us the chance to have a bath without being interrupted or being able to go to the doctors on your own without having a consultation with Anthony there,” she added.

“For Anthony it is so much more. It gives him social interaction which he couldn’t get elsewhere. It has helped him improve.

“This will affect people leaving school soon. The parents of children at special schools may expect their child to go on to something else, some of these will be earmarked for going to the centre.

“If these services go the only option for some people could be residential care.”

Asked if Kirklees Council consider this to be a cut to frontline services, a council spokeswoman said: “We have to look now at how we can save money.

“We are trying to make sure frontline services like social care are protected, but the size of the cuts means some savings will have to be made.

“We are asking people for their views on whether they feel the proposed changes to who is able to get care and support from the council is fair.

“Officers and councillors have to look at ways in which they can manage to meet people’s needs with a reduced amount of money from the government. “One of the things they are looking at is whether or not to just focus on meeting needs for people who are in the critical category only.

“These proposals affect some of our most vulnerable residents and we hope that people will take time to give their views on the important changes being proposed.

“We will only make our final decision once we have carefully considered all the evidence made available to us.”

The consultation will end on January 26, with results fed back to councillors in time for the budget announcements at the end of February.