A disabled member of the House of Lords says she "fears" disabled people could end up living in care homes if a "severe" shortage in personal assistants is not addressed.
Baroness Jane Campbell, a cross-party peer, and others have been struggling to recruit PAs in recent years.
Personal assistants, known as PAs, help with care and general tasks to enable individuals to live independently.
The government said £500m will be used to "develop the existing workforce".
Veteran disability campaigner Baroness Campbell contacted the BBC's Access All podcast to say: "The situation is so bad I fear disabled people will be forced back into living in instructional settings.
"Most of us escaped from them in the 1970s to live independent lives. We don't want to go back."
The Baroness is a wheelchair user with the muscle wasting condition spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).
According to the Local Government Association (LGA) about 70,000 people in England use PAs. It described the current lack of workers as "severe" in a recent report.
From BBC