Paul
(5 comments, 450 posts)
This user hasn't shared any profile information
Posts by Paul
Social care self-funders need help making choices
Needing a helping hand ... care self-funders often lack help with making crucial decisions. Photograph: Sipa Press / Rex Features
Growing numbers of people are paying for social care from their own (often modest) savings, either through personal choice or because they have assets above the mean-testing threshold for public funds. There should be some advantages to this. Surely “self-funders” are better able to exercise consumer power and get the support that they need, rather than simply accepting what is on offer? Yet research published today by the Putting People First Consortium and SCIE (pdf) finds the reality to be more complex – and much less positive.
For some people, having adequate financial resources had enabled them to make considered and deliberate choices. For others, decisions about care had been accelerated or necessitated by changing circumstances, leaving them with little control over subsequent developments. When making vital (and often life-changing) decisions, people are most likely to consult family and friends. Few of the people interviewed considered approaching social services for help or advice. Typically this was viewed as stigmatising, something to be avoided or used only as a last resort.
Those who did approach the council frequently described being “given a list” of care homes with no other information or advice about care options. Carers and relatives described similar experiences, emphasising that the first and often only question they were asked about their relative’s situation concerned their financial status.
View post:
Social care self-funders need help making choices
Come out of your comfort zone, disability living allowance cuts are relevant to all
While Millbank swarmed with student protestors and Mumsnet buzzed angrily about the reductions to child benefit, away from the glare of publicity, disabled people and carers mourned alone. The cuts to benefits and services affecting us really are a matter of life and death, so why the wider silence? Perhaps it’s because the benefits to be slashed are poorly understood and after years of tabloid scrounger stories the assumption is that people who claim them are living a lifestyle choice of state-sponsored ease.
Disability living allowance (DLA) is a cash benefit paid to people under 65 who meet its strict eligibility criteria for help with their care and/or mobility needs. It can’t be claimed by just anyone, a bit of a bad back won’t hold up to the intense scrutiny of a DLA claim. The forms run to 40-plus pages and demand detailed answers to deeply personal matters: how does the person go to the toilet, how do they feed themselves, wash, dress, get around, and more. Statements are expected from those who know the person claiming – a family member or carer. The GP will be asked to sign a section; physiotherapists, occupational therapists, social workers, surgeons, professors and more may be contacted; and medical records consulted. And if all that’s not enough, a face-to-face assessment with a medical professional is arranged.
Read this article:
Come out of your comfort zone, disability living allowance cuts are relevant to all
Up to 500,000 wrongly denied incapacity benefit, figures show
Survey by Compass, which used official DWP statistics, says 300,000 claimants won their tribunals when they appealed Up to 500,000 people have been wrongly judged fit for work and disallowed incapacity benefit over the past 15 years, according to a study for Compass, the leftwing campaign group. In the first attempt to quantify the numbers refused incapacity benefit only to have it restored, Steve Griffiths, a former government consultant, says the figures are “at least half a million” during that period. Griffiths used official statistics gleaned from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the tribunal service and social security statistics to get to “at least” 500,000 wrongly barred from incapacity benefit since 1996.
See the article here:
Up to 500,000 wrongly denied incapacity benefit, figures show
Legal aid cuts will hit women the hardest, says justice department
Ethnic minorities and disabled people will also miss out after £600m cut to family law and divorce funding Women will bear the brunt of plans to strip back legal aid as funding for family law and divorce cases is cut, according to the justice department’s own assessment of the impact of reforms. Of the people who will no longer qualify for legal aid under the changes announced by the government in November, women outnumber men by nearly six to four. Ethnic minorities and people with disabilities are also more likely to be denied legal aid after the reforms, which will also end most funding for welfare and education disputes
More here:
Legal aid cuts will hit women the hardest, says justice department
Philip French: my life as a stammerer
The Observer’s film critic reflects on The King’s Speech – and how his own speech impediment has contributed to his life and character From as early as I can remember until 1952, when I left home at the age of 18 to go into the army, there was an annual ritual on the afternoon of Christmas Day. Dinner, which meant turkey and all the trimmings followed by plum pudding, began around two o’clock and was carefully timed to end so that everyone could sit there beneath the paper decorations, wearing the hats that came out of the crackers, and earnestly, reverently listen to the king’s Christmas message on the radio. This hallowed national tradition, initiated by Sir John Reith in 1932, was not five years old when George V, who’d given four of them, died
Go here to read the rest:
Philip French: my life as a stammerer
ILF Closed Permanently, but Existing Payments ‘Safeguarded’
The Independent Living Fund (ILF), which stopped accepting new applications earlier this year, is to be closed permanently, but the Government has promised to ‘fully protect the programme budget for existing recipients, according to the Minister for Disabled People, Maria Miller.
Stephen Jack, Chair of the ILF Trustees said: “The ILF board of Trustees has worked closely with the Government over the last few months to help it consider options for the future of the ILF. We are pleased that the Government shares our first priority in committing to safeguarding the position of existing recipients of the fund.”
The Coalition Government reviewed the role of the ILF and informally consulted with disability organisations, local government, and the Department of Health before concluding that there was a ‘strong and principled case for reform’. In safeguarding the position of existing ILF recipients the Minister has also confirmed that the ILF is permanently closed to new applicants. (more…)
