Social work news

COSLA pay offer to council staff at ‘limit of affordability’

27-05-2024 21:30

Scottish local government body COSLA has issued a pay offer to council staff for 2024-25 that it says is at the “limit of affordability”.
Under the proposal, social workers and other Scottish local authority staff would receive a 2.2% pay rise backdated to April 2024 and a further 2% in October this year, extending until October 2025. The proposal is worth about 4.2% over 18 months or 3% on an annualised basis.
According to the Scottish Government, its £14bn settlement for

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The Guardian view on private equity and public services: this trend needs reversing | Editorial

27-05-2024 19:39

From railways to nurseries and children’s homes, investors are taking advantage of chances to siphon taxpayer funds offshoreSector by sector, private equity is making deep inroads into UK public services. More than a decade ago, the collapse of Southern Cross, the private-equity-owned care home operator, revealed the havoc that can be wreaked when essential public services are run by heavily indebted businesses with complex financial structures. Typically, such owners maximise profits by u

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‘No one would accept blame’: Carers highlight DWP failures over debt crisis

27-05-2024 07:00

Carers asked to repay sums as high as £20k say officials did not share eligibility information between departmentsCarers put through the wringer of carer’s allowance overpayments raise the same question time and again: they weren’t aware they had infringed benefit rules but welfare officials were. Why were they not told, rather than overpayments being allowed to run on for months, landing them with debts of thousands of pounds?For thousands of carers who unwittingly breached ca

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‘It feels like contempt’: DWP tells 85-year-old dementia patient to repay £13k

27-05-2024 07:00

Cypriot-born Sia Kasparis, who speaks limited English, was not told about disability premium overpayment for several yearsEighty-five-year-old Sia Kasparis was in her hospital bed in the living room of her small north London flat when there was a knock at the door.The grandmother-of-five has been bedbound for the last two years, the result of a collapsed vertebra and a range of other health problems, including vascular dementia, heart failure and kidney disease. Continue reading...

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‘It feels like contempt’: DWP asks 85-year-old dementia patient to repay £13k

27-05-2024 07:00

Cypriot-born Sia Kasparis, who speaks limited English, was not told about disability premium overpayment for several yearsEighty-five-year-old Sia Kasparis was in her hospital bed in the living room of her small north London flat when there was a knock at the door.The grandmother-of-five has been bedbound for the last two years, the result of a collapsed vertebra and a range of other health problems, including vascular dementia, heart failure and kidney disease. Continue reading...

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