Care news

• Alzheimer’s Society calls for housing associations to unite against dementia

  24-03-2017 13:30 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Alzheimer’s Society is calling on housing organisations to unite against dementia and improve the lives of people living with the condition by signing up to its new Dementia Friendly Housing Charter.
   
  Research from the leading dementia charity* has previously found that 85 per cent of people want to stay living at home for as long as possible when diagnosed with dementia, but that a third of the general public would not know where to find information about how to make their home and
  
  Read more

• UK government dementia adviser resigns over prosecutions of unpaid carers

  23-04-2024 12:06 via theguardian.com
  
  Johnny Timpson says he wants to ‘take a stand’ after revelations thousands of carers are being forced to pay huge finesOne of Rishi Sunak’s dementia advisers has resigned over the government’s approach towards unpaid carers, describing the prosecutions of vulnerable people as “beyond the pale”.Johnny Timpson, who advised No 10 on its dementia strategy, said he wanted to “take a stand” after the Guardian revealed that tens of thousands of unpaid car
  
  Read more

• UK government dementia adviser resigns over prosecutions of carers

  23-04-2024 12:06 via theguardian.com
  
  Johnny Timpson says he wants to ‘take a stand’ after revelations thousands of unpaid carers are being forced to pay huge finesOne of Rishi Sunak’s dementia advisers has resigned over the government’s approach towards unpaid carers, describing the prosecutions of vulnerable people as “beyond the pale”.Johnny Timpson, who advised No 10 on its dementia strategy, said he wanted to “take a stand” after the Guardian revealed that tens of thousands of unp
  
  Read more

• Ignorance still stalks the land

  21-04-2024 19:25 via theguardian.com
  
  Beveridge’s giants | Carers | Cash-strapped Tories | Early Christmas | Bird’s birthdayBeth Riding writes of the “five giants” William Beveridge wanted to overcome in 1942 still stalking the land (I’m 17 and haven’t seen a dentist for four years. This is life in England’s NHS dental deserts, 17 April). Agenda Publications noted this and asked five writers to discuss how far the giants had been overcome, in five books published in 2022: Disease on health,
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Lemn Sissay: ‘brilliant’ plans to improve child social care ignored by ministers

  19-04-2024 14:34 via theguardian.com
  
  Poet says government has not acted on 2022 MacAlister review because reforming system is not a vote winnerUK politics – latest updatesThe poet and broadcaster Lemn Sissay has accused ministers of ignoring “brilliant” recommendations to improve the “dysfunctional” children’s social care system in England because they are not vote winners.Sissay, whose bestselling memoir My Name Is Why was a reflection on his own childhood in care, said the government had &ldquo
  
  Read more

• Of course a society that demonises poverty will try to prosecute vulnerable, unpaid carers | Zoe Williams

  19-04-2024 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The scandal, revealed by the Guardian, didn’t occur in a vacuum. The right’s casting of the poor as parasitic benefits cheats underpins it allThe unpaid carer’s allowance in this country is £81.90 a week. It’s hard to see what serious thought went into arriving at that figure – any calculation of how much it costs to live on, for instance, or how much an unpaid carer is saving the government. Being without discernible curiosity about the lives of unpaid carers
  
  Read more

• ‘Humiliated’: carer made to pay back £3.8k after mistake declaring income

  19-04-2024 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Davina Ware applied for benefits to help look after husband Mike, 72, who has lived with Parkinson’s for 20 yearsThe pain cuts through Davina Ware’s voice as she describes her experience of carer’s allowance, the meagre weekly benefit given to those heralded by the government as Britain’s “unsung heroes”.She feels “humiliated,” “devastated,” and “treated like a conniving thief” by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) s
  
  Read more

• Sure Start could have changed everything for my family. Labour must be brave – and revitalise it | Terri White

  18-04-2024 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  A new report shows how transformational the initiative was. But Keir Starmer’s early-years plans lack the same visionSure Start did change the lives of children, a new report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) told us last week. It not only improved educational outcomes for children, particularly kids from deprived areas, but also reduced later need for education, health and care plans for those with special educational needs and disabilities (Send), and paid for itself. The confirm
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• DWP warns carers they could face greater penalties if they appeal against fines

  17-04-2024 19:41 via theguardian.com
  
  Officials at Department for Work and Pensions accused of ‘threatening and cruel’ tactics over repayment ordersWoman with dementia, 92, told to repay £7,000 in disability allowanceGovernment officials have been accused of using “threatening and cruel” tactics towards unpaid carers by saying they could face even greater financial penalties if they appeal against “vindictive” benefit fines.This month a Guardian investigation revealed that thousands of peopl
  
  Read more

• Unpaid carers lose out in benefits gap | Brief letters

  17-04-2024 19:31 via theguardian.com
  
  Carer’s allowance eligibility | Liz Truss’s bestseller | Save the election date | Earthworms rule | Reservoir picsRe Jan Pahl’s letter (12 April) illustrating the very low value that carer’s allowance (CA) places on unpaid carers’ contributions to the care of their families, the gap between entitlement to and eligibility for CA is further proof of this. In 2022-23, 1.3 million people were deemed to be entitled to claim CA, but nearly 400,000 were ineligible bec
  
  Read more

• DWP warns carers they could face greater penalties if they appeal fines

  17-04-2024 19:12 via theguardian.com
  
  Officials at Department for Work and Pensions accused of ‘threatening and cruel’ tactics over repayment orders Government officials have been accused of using “threatening and cruel” tactics towards unpaid carers by saying they could face even greater financial penalties if they appeal against “vindictive” benefit fines.This month a Guardian investigation revealed that thousands of people who look after disabled, frail or ill relatives have been forced to pay
  
  Read more

• Man with Down’s syndrome died from choking at care home, inquest hears

  17-04-2024 16:19 via theguardian.com
  
  Marcus Hanlin swallowed conkers hidden in rice after being left unsupervised in Bristol homeA man with Down’s syndrome, severe learning disabilities and poor eyesight, who died after swallowing conkers hidden in rice as part of a sensory activity at a nursing home, had been left unsupervised though staff knew he was fascinated by food, an inquest has heard.Marcus Hanlin, 57, was on a regime at Cheddar Grove nursing home in Bristol that included him only eating pureed meals and being kept a
  
  Read more

• Man died after swallowing conkers at care home, inquest hears

  17-04-2024 16:19 via theguardian.com
  
  Marcus Hanlin, who had Down’s syndrome and was on regime of pureed meals, choked after being left unsupervised, inquest toldA man with Down’s syndrome, severe learning disabilities and poor eyesight, who died after swallowing conkers hidden in rice as part of a sensory activity at a nursing home, had been left unsupervised though staff knew he was fascinated by food, an inquest has heard.Marcus Hanlin, 57, was on a regime at Cheddar Grove nursing home in Bristol that included him onl
  
  Read more

• One in 52 Blackpool children in care as poverty soars in north of England

  17-04-2024 01:01 via theguardian.com
  
  £25bn of public money would have been saved between 2019 and 2023 if north had same care entry rates as south, report saysOne in every 52 children in Blackpool are in care compared with one in 140 across England, leading to calls for more to be done to urgently tackle the widening north-south divide, brought on by “decades of underinvestment”.Nine in every thousand children are in care in the north, compared with six in the rest of England, according to a report by Health Equit
  
  Read more

• Labour plans review of carer’s allowance after thousands forced to repay

  16-04-2024 13:54 via theguardian.com
  
  Alison McGovern says UK would ‘grind to a halt’ without unpaid carers and confirms party will review system if it wins powerLabour will review the system of carer’s allowance if it wins the general election, the party has confirmed, after the Guardian revealed that scores of unpaid carers were being forced to pay back thousands of pounds for minor breaches of benefit rules.Thousands of carers have run up huge debts, been given criminal records and been forced to sell their home
  
  Read more

• Eileen Jarvis obituary

  14-04-2024 16:56 via theguardian.com
  
  My mum, Eileen Jarvis, who has died aged 92, devoted her life to fighting for the rights of women and children, first with the women’s liberation movement and as a volunteer for Women’s Aid reguges, and then as a social worker in three London boroughs.Her passion for social work stemmed from the poverty she had witnessed growing up in north Wales, as well as the tragic high-profile case of Maria Colwell, a seven-year-old killed by her stepfather in 1973. While raising her own daughte
  
  Read more

• Revealed: hundreds of vulnerable children sent to illegal and unregulated care homes in England

  13-04-2024 17:36 via theguardian.com
  
  Observer investigation finds that private companies made £105m despite not being registered with OfstedHundreds of extremely vulnerable school-age children in England are being sent to illegal, unregulated homes every year because of a chronic shortage of places in secure local authority units.An Observer investigation has established that councils placed 706 children, the majority of them under the age of 16, in their care in homes that were not registered with Ofsted, the children’
  
  Read more

• ‘Nowhere else is available’: how vulnerable children end up in illegal care homes

  13-04-2024 17:36 via theguardian.com
  
  Harrowing court video hearings reveal plight of those unable to find a place in secure, registered accommodationThe judge sitting in the family division of the high court can barely hide his concern and frustration as he listens to a barrister acting for Kent county council update him about the plight of a vulnerable 14-year-old girl in an unregistered, illegal children’s home run by a private company.She is at risk of child sexual exploitation. In the past, she has run away, taken hard dr
  
  Read more

• ‘They’re heartless’: how one woman fell victim to the carer’s allowance trap

  12-04-2024 18:09 via theguardian.com
  
  Karina Moon, who is sole carer for her daughter most of the week, was told she needed to repay £11,292.75 or be prosecuted for fraudEx-ministers press Sunak on ‘persecution’ of carers who broke earnings rulesCarers in the UK: have you been threatened with prosecution for benefit fraud?Karina Moon vividly reacalls the telephone call that brought her to tears. She was stood, frozen, in the living room of her home in north Wales as a government official told her she needed to repa
  
  Read more

• It’s a rotten system that puts unpaid carers in the dock | Letters

  12-04-2024 17:50 via theguardian.com
  
  A council’s benefits expert and a tribunal judge, plus other readers, respond to reports on how the DWP is persecuting carers for unwittingly breaching complicated benefits rulesI have worked in benefits for more years than I care to admit, although for local authorities rather than the Department for Work and Pensions. The news about the persecution of carer’s allowance claimants is not surprising (Calls to end ‘persecution’ of carers over UK benefits rule breaches, 9 Ap
  
  Read more

• Many aged care workers may wait until 2026 for full pay increase as Albanese government requests phased implementation

  12-04-2024 10:55 via theguardian.com
  
  Commonwealth requests Fair Work Commission phase in full 23% increase over two years to prevent workforce shortages elsewhereFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastAged care workers should wait until January 2026 for the full 23% pay rise ordered by the Fair Work Commission, according to the Albanese government.The commonwealth has requested that the commission phase in the increase over two years, from Janua
  
  Read more

• Tell us: how did Sure Start help you or your child?

  09-04-2024 12:09 via theguardian.com
  
  We would like to hear from people who benefited from New Labour’s early years programmeGordon Brown and other veterans of the last Labour government have called upon Keir Starmer to include a new Sure Start-style programme in his election manifesto after a study showed its benefits to children from low-income backgrounds.Sure Start was first announced in 1998 and saw the development of hundreds children’s centres across the UK. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• The Guardian view on carer’s allowance: people who look after others should not be an afterthought | Editorial

  08-04-2024 19:46 via theguardian.com
  
  The DWP’s system punishes claimants for payment errors. But it is the rules, not the carers, that are most at faultThe problems caused by attempts to reclaim benefit payments to carers, on the basis that they are ineligible due to increased earnings, are not new. Between 19,000 and 39,000 overpayments have been logged in each of the last five years. But this only makes the latest details of the heavy-handed manner in which these situations are being dealt with all the more dismaying. It is
  
  Read more

• Who are unpaid carers, and why have some had to repay large sums to UK government?

  07-04-2024 18:32 via theguardian.com
  
  Rules around earning limits for people in receipt of carer’s allowance risk them unknowingly racking up debt to DWPCarers threatened with prosecution over minor rules breachesAnalysis: Why are so many carers being taken to court?Unpaid carers provide support for loved ones – normally parents or children, who are disabled, frail or ill. There are an estimated 5.7 million carers in the UK. The majority of unpaid carers are women. The 46 to 65 age group is the biggest unpaid carer cohor
  
  Read more

• Who are unpaid carers, and why have some had to repay large sums to the UK government?

  07-04-2024 18:32 via theguardian.com
  
  Rules around earning limits for people in receipt of carer’s allowance risk them unknowingly racking up debt to DWPCarers threatened with prosecution over minor rules breachesAnalysis: Why are so many carers being taken to court?Unpaid carers provide support for loved ones – normally parents or children, who are disabled, frail or ill. There are an estimated 5.7 million carers in the UK. The majority of unpaid carers are women. The 46-65 age group is the biggest unpaid carer cohort.
  
  Read more

• The financial, physical and emotional toll of being an unpaid carer | Letters

  07-04-2024 18:16 via theguardian.com
  
  The government provides nowhere near enough support for people who care for their loved ones, writes Kirsty McHugh of the Carers Trust. Plus a letter from someone who cares for a partner with a mental health condition, and another from Jane Nation on the invisibility of disabled peopleYou’re right to praise Kate Garraway for shining a light on the financial, physical and emotional toll of being an unpaid carer (Editorial, 27 March). The government still provides nowhere near enough support
  
  Read more

• The right to carer’s leave in Britain is a step forward, but a system that relies on unpaid care is still wrong | Emily Kenway

  05-04-2024 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  A week’s break would have made a huge difference to me when my mum had cancer – and so would recognition of carers’ vital roleFor the first time, employees in Great Britain are going to have the right to time off work for caring responsibilities. This change, which comes into effect tomorrow, will affect about 2.5 million people who are juggling employment with caring for long-term sick, disabled or elderly loved ones. I know first-hand why carer’s leave is sorely needed.
  
  Read more

• Lease electric cars to rural care workers, UK climate charity says

  01-04-2024 11:23 via theguardian.com
  
  Possible charity highlights financial savings and environmental benefits for low-paid staffMinisters should consider a social leasing scheme for care workers in rural areas across the UK to use electric cars, a climate charity has argued, saying this would save often low-paid staff large sums, also bringing a big environmental boost.A focus group of carers in rural and semi-rural parts of the UK, carried out as part of the study, found that one woman earning less than £20,000 a year as a m
  
  Read more

• ‘If you want to abuse your workers, that’s fine’: UK modern slavery watchdog’s funding cut

  30-03-2024 14:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Government accused of undermining the fight against labour abuses after £2m real-terms cut to oversight budgetBritain’s labour abuse watchdog has had its funding cut by the Home Office despite a dramatic surge in exploitation in the care sector.The budget of the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) has been set at £6.25m for 2024-25 compared with £7.7m last year, official figures show. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

Follow @UK_Care on Twitter!