Category Archives: Carers

Herts Valleys CCG pledges commitment to unpaid carers

January 4, 2014   Carers

Without carers, local services would be under even greater pressure

8:00am Saturday 4th January 2014 in News  By Ruth Halkon, Reporter

Borehamwood Times: Dr Nicholas Small pledges his commitment to carers Dr Nicholas Small pledges his commitment to carers

An organisation responsible for delivering NHS services in Hertfordshire has pledged its support to the county’s unpaid carers.

Herts Valleys Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has signed Hertfordshire County Council’s Commitment to Carers strategy, which aims to improve the way carers are treated.

The county has 110,000 people who provide unpaid support to family or friends who could not manage without this help.

They provide the equivalent of £2.1 billion worth of unpaid care every year, almost as much as Hertfordshire’s entire health and social care budget.

The Commitment to Carers strategy is designed to encourage Hertfordshire organisations to improve the lives of these carers and ensure they have access to the support they need.

The CCG will have carer champions in each of its GP practices, which would identify carers and make sure they are referred to organisations that can help them.

Local GP and chairman of the CCG Dr Nicolas Small signed the commitment on behalf of the organisation.

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Merseyside woman to pay bedroom tax on sensory room for severely disabled daughter

January 2, 2014   Carers, disability, ukcuts

Dawn Lennon said she was now facing having to cut back on food in order to remain in her home

 
Dawn Lennon 52,from Castlefields,Runcorn,with her severely disabled daughter Kelly Marie 28,who is being charged Bedrom Tax for a spare room which is full of equipment.
By Marc Waddington

A Merseyside woman must pay the bedroom tax on a room which has been converted into a sensory area for her severely disabled daughter.

Dawn Lennon faces finding more than £570 a year because the government has deemed the room to be spare.

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Bedroom tax hits 60,000 families with carers

December 31, 2013   Alzheimer’s, benefits, Carers, Older care, ukcuts

About 60,000 families living in council homes where there is someone caring for an elderly or disabled relative have been caught out by the “bedroom tax”

Andy McSmith Author Biography Tuesday 31 December 2013

Answering a written question in the Commons, the Employment minister, Esther McVie, revealed: “Around 60,000 households affected by the removal of the spare room subsidy policy are in receipt of carer’s allowance or have an underlying entitlement to carer’s allowance.

The revelation follows a letter from the Disability Benefits Consortium, which represents 50 charities, pleading for disabled people and their carers to be exempt from the removal of the spare room subsidy

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