Author Archives: wendy

MP’s blast over welfare ‘cruelty’

December 20, 2013   Carers, disability, ukcuts, welfare

The hardships being suffered by Blackpool residents were laid bare to Prime Minister David Cameron during a heated exchange in Parliament.

Blackpool South MP Gordon Marsden used yesterday’s Prime Minister’s Question Time to put pressure on Mr Cameron about the impact welfare reforms are having on ordinary people.

He said: “As the Prime Minister sits down for Christmas dinner to’ chillax’ with his family and friends, will he spare a thought for my Blackpool constituents, and half a million others, whose Christmas is mired in the incompetence and random cruelty of DWP’s benefits sanctions.

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IT team raise over £90,000 for carers’ charity

December 19, 2013   Carers, internet, Scotland, young carers

Dec 19 2013 by Our Correspondent, Ormskirk Advertiser

Raise more than £94,053

A TRIATHLON squad from Skelmersdale helped fundraisers from the Co-operative’s IT team raise more than £94,053 for their charity of the year, the Carers Trust.

The Skem runners, swimmers and cyclists organised by Nadine Burns, John Jones and Stephanie Moran, raised £1,200 for the charity.

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Home care for elderly cut by 25% in five years

December 18, 2013   Carers, Older care, ukcuts

Charities say thousands are being denied dignity and peace of mind because of council spending cuts

  • Cash-strapped authorities limiting provision with tougher rules
  • Number of elderly having meals on wheels almost halved in last two years
  • Number of pensioners receiving home care dropped 12% to 385,000
  • Age UK say figures show ‘how increasingly desperate the care crisis is’

By Sophie Borland

PUBLISHED: 00:18, 18 December 2013 | UPDATED: 00:18, 18 December 2013

 

Charities said thousands of elderly and other vulnerable adults are being denied dignity and peace of mind because of council spending cuts

The number of elderly people being given state-funded care in their homes has dropped by a quarter in just five years, according to official figures.

Charities said thousands of elderly and other vulnerable adults are being denied dignity and peace of mind because of council spending cuts.

Cash-strapped authorities nationwide are limiting their provision with tougher rules on who is entitled to receive help, despite the need growing as the population ages.

A total of 1.3million people receive state-funded home help, a place in a care home or hot meals – down from 1.7million in 2007-08.

In the last two years, the number of elderly having meals on wheels has almost halved from 45,000 to 23,000.

Meanwhile there has been a 12 per cent fall in those receiving home care, from 437,000 to 385,000.

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