Category Archives: Carers
Personal Independence Payments: a failing system is trapping disabled people without benefits
Bills still have to be paid and food still has to be bought.
By Frances Ryan Published 17 February 2014 13:34
Since the new Personal Independence Payments began to replace Disability Living Allowance, fewer than one in six people who applied have had their claims decided. While assessments drag out over months, bills still have to be paid and food still has to be bought.
While waiting for their claim to be decided, people are losing out on vital support.
Paul Richardson* has just got off the phone with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). It was another phone call trying to check on the progress of his daughter Jennifer’s application for the new disability benefit, the Personal Independence Payment (PIP), but it was another conversation that got them nowhere.
Jennifer has borderline personality disorder and has made two suicide attempts since she left school. She’s now 22 and this year moved back to live with her parents. She finds it difficult to talk to strangers and her mum and dad have been dealing with the PIP process as much as they can on her behalf. The process has been difficult from the offset when they had their first meeting at home in November.
Moves to tackle isolation of carers extended
A BID to banish isolation among unpaid carers and help them overcome the day-to-day pressures of looking after a loved one is to be extended in North Yorkshire.
Published on the 18 February
2014
00:00
Sponsored by
Express Bi-folding Doors
The decision to extend the project across the whole of Harrogate and Ripon follows a six-month pilot project which supported more than 140 carers-in-need across south Harrogate – resulting in half getting help for the very first time – and follows a Yorkshire Post campaign to highlight the shocking scale of loneliness in the region.
The programme of support – run by charity the Carers’ Resource in partnership with the local NHS and North Yorkshire County Council – is to be funded until March next year and expanded into north Harrogate as well as Ripon and rural areas.
The Carers’ Resource said the success of the project had created a strong platform to reach out to more people in the district’s growing community of carers at a time when Government cutbacks were causing unprecedented hardship for them.
New free Which? website will help carers
New free Which? website will help carers Worried about an elderly relative? Which? can help
15 February 2014
The free Which? Elderly Care website launches as Which? research finds that people are struggling to make care arrangements for older relatives.
New Which? research finds that only 40% of those aged 40-60 – the ‘sandwich generation’ who usually look after both their children and older relatives – feel confident making decisions about arranging care. And around four in ten (44%) with elderly relatives are worried about this responsibility.
The free-to-use Which? Elderly Care website offers practical information and advice for those arranging care for a relative, covering how to choose a care option, factors to consider, what options are available, and ways to finance each choice.
The Elderly Care website will help people find the right information for their circumstances, which our research revealed is hard to find:
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