Monthly Archives: August 2013

Bedroom tax: families trapped with nowhere to move

August 5, 2013   Carers, ukcuts

Revealed: ‘Big lie’ behind the bedroom tax as families trapped with nowhere to move so cannot avoid new penalty for having spare room

Emily Dugan Author Biography

Social Affairs Correspondent

Monday 05 August 2013

96% of benefit claimants who will be penalised cannot be rehoused

The Government’s justification for its controversial “bedroom tax” has been debunked by new figures showing that up to 96 per cent of those affected have, in effect, nowhere to move.

The figures published today in The Independent expose the false argument behind ministerial attempts to spin the move as ending the  “spare-room subsidy”, and confirm campaigners’ claims that it merely penalises poor people.

The policy means that tenants have their housing benefit reduced by 14 per cent if they have one spare bedroom, and 25 per cent if they have two or more spare bedrooms.

Yet more than 19 out of 20 families  hit by the bedroom tax are trapped in their larger homes because there is nowhere smaller within the local social housing stock to take them. This is shown by figures provided by councils in response to Freedom of Information requests by the Labour Party.

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Carers will qualify for childcare vouchers

August 5, 2013   Carers

 Plans to help working parents with nursery bills are to be  extended to cover carers and  people taking maternity or paternity leave.

Nigel Morris Author Biography

Deputy Political Editor

Monday 05 August 2013

Plans to help working parents with nursery bills are to be  extended to cover carers and  people taking maternity or paternity leave.

Chancellor George Osborne will confirm today that he is pressing ahead with a £1bn scheme to ease the childcare costs faced by families with two working parents.

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Islington home carers’ financial support ring fenced in council pledge

August 4, 2013   Carers, charities, disability, epilepsy, Older care

Mrs Willson, 71, hailed the decision to ring fence home carers’ cash at a time when budgets are pressed

Jean Willson Jean Willson

By David Churchill Saturday, August 3, 2013
5:00 PM

A leading care figure has hailed Islington Council’s decision to ring fence money available to home carers for assisting disabled loved ones.

Jean Willson OBE, who was recently given the Freedom of the Borough, claims Islington’s estimated 16,000 carers save local taxpayers about £15 million a year.

In recognition of their huge humanitarian effort, Cllr Janet Burgess, Islington Council’s executive member for health and well-being, this week pledged to ring fence money for carers until at least 2015/16.

Carers, of which there are more than 15,000 according to the 2011 Census, can currently claim up to £30-a-week depending on how severely disabled their loved one is.

However, only about 1,000 claim, according to Cllr Burgess, who is pushing a drive to reach more.

She said: “When you think about it, 1,000 isn’t a lot compared to the total number of carers that we know exist across the borough.

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