Monthly Archives: August 2011
Concessionary coach fares are coming to an end
31 August 2011 Last updated at 11:46
Bus cuts ‘threat to vulnerable’
Coach firms have had enough time to prepare for cuts to long-distance concessionary fares, Transport Minister Norman Baker has said.
Such fares for those over 60, and for those with disabilities, are to be scrapped in England on 1 November.
Coach operators said they could have offered the government the savings they wanted without penalising people who depended on the long-distance services.
But Mr Baker said companies had been given 12 months’ notice of the plans.
Warning over disability living allowance shake-up
All 3.2 million people receiving DLA at the moment, both those in work and out, will be reassessed.
31 August 2011 Last updated at 11:10
Ministers must “learn the lessons” of past welfare changes or risk their proposed shake-up of disability support leaving many in poverty, it is claimed.
Plans to replace the disability living allowance (DLA) could lead to 85% of claimants cutting back on basics like food and transport, a charity warned.
The Papworth Trust said there was also anxiety over the reassessment process.
The government says DLA is complex and inconsistent and changes are “overdue”, but stresses cash payments will remain.
The coalition is planning to replace the allowance, introduced in 1992 to help disabled people cope with the extra costs they face in their daily lives, with a new benefit called Personal Independence Payment.
Mobility concern
All 3.2 million people receiving DLA at the moment, both those in work and out, will be reassessed.
Birmingham hospital error paralysed Newport teenager
From being an outgoing teenager her life has altered overnight
31 August 2011 Last updated at 06:31
A teenager was left paralysed from the waist down after a spinal anaesthetic was wrongly left in place for too long, a hospital has admitted.
Sophie Tyler, 14, of Risca, near Newport, had gallstone surgery in Birmingham Children’s Hospital in 2008.
But a pain-killing epidural infusion was not removed for two days, permanently damaging her spinal cord.
