The NHS will buckle under the pressure of increasing demand if the current, broken system is allowed to carry on There is some hope in the Queen’s speech for our ageing population and the care services that provide for them. But the announcement of a draft social care bill must not be used as a vehicle to kick reform into the long grass. The current system is broken and it urgently needs reform.
Letters warning of £500-a-week benefit cap are sent to thousands of households that will not be affected Thousands of households, including families with disabled children, have been incorrectly told they are likely to see their welfare payments cut, charities and social security advisers say. From next year, couples or single parents in England who receive more than £500 a week in benefits will have their payments cut
Planning ahead for a family member with a disability, mental illness or dementia can be daunting. That’s where the Cairn Trust comes in Name Cairn Trust Management Founders Nicola Smith and Sophie Dobson Company started April 2010 Number of employees 2 Based Glasgow What’s the big idea
Government claims figure vindicates policy – while charities say it is unfit for purpose and will cost millions in appeals More than a third of people who were claiming the old incapacity benefit have been told they are ineligible for the new benefit, employment and support allowance – a figure hailed by the government as justification for the decision to reassess all claimants, and by campaigners as evidence that the new system is unreasonably harsh. Disability rights groups pointed to the large numbers of people who are currently going to tribunal to appeal against a decision that they are fit for work, and stressed it was not surprising that a test designed to make fewer people qualify for disability benefits was finding fewer people eligible for them
Campaigners fear that scrapping legal aid for clinical blunders will mean future victims will not have access to a reasonable life that compensation can buy Like many boys on the cusp of adolescence, Theodore is thinking about beer and fast cars. Top of his wish list is an orange Lamborghini, but for now he may have to settle for a high-speed wheelchair
Asda discovers the secret which eluded mediaeval alchemists – but take care where you park in Skipton…
According to charities, public abuse of disabled people is on the rise . Four readers tell their stories Isobel Glenelg, posts as IsobelGlenelg Having no visible signs of disability (unless you count an almost permanent pain-induced grimace) has its drawbacks. In the early days of my blue badge ownership, I was often glared at disapprovingly.
Today the welfare reform bill is expected to return to the Commons ( Report , 30 January). Under government plans, 670,000 households – two-thirds containing a disabled family member – would lose an average of £670 a year because they are deemed to have one or more additional bedrooms. Separated parents or grandparents who use their extra bedroom to share the care of their children or grandchildren; families in which two same-sex teenage children have their own bedroom for privacy and study; foster parents with rooms occupied by foster children – many, despite having nowhere else to move to, will see their incomes cut if the bill passes unamended.
After last night’s defeat in the Lords on the benefit cap, the government faces fresh opposition over its plans for child maintenance, and the social fund 11.09am: Could the government be heading for a sixth defeat in the Lords over its welfare reform bill? The bill includes proposals to charge single parents to use the Child Support Agency (CSA) in order to access payments from their former partners – and this will be opposed by a group of Conservative peers, led by Lord Mackay of Clashfern , who was Mrs Thatcher’s Lord Chancellor in the late 1980′s.
Audi mistakenly claimed its new sales order system meant it could no longer take sales orders from disabled customers I’m a paraplegic and, when buying a new car, am entitled to have the vehicle VAT exempt because it has to be adapted for me to drive. We live in a rural location with a young family and no public transport, and are totally dependent on a car. I currently have an Audi on a three-year contract with Audi Finance
