Category Archives: Featured Article

New service offers housing help for older people in Norfolk

October 7, 2014   Alzheimer’s, Carers, dementia, Featured Article, Norfolk

carer John Cook and his wife Maureen who has dementia. Photo by Simon Finlay.

Tuesday, October 7, 2014
8:13 AM

Moving home is considered one of the most stressful things to do in life, which is why a Norfolk charity is offering older people free advice and support about housing and care.

Examples of who the service has helped and how:

• A couple in their mid-70s were helping to move into sheltered housing after returning to the UK from living abroad. They will also helped to access benefits.

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NHS and social care ‘at breaking point’, medics and charities warn

October 6, 2014   Carers, Featured Article, ukcuts

The NHS and social care services are “at breaking point”, a group of leading medical groups and charities have said.

6 October 2014 Last updated at 03:38

Writing in the Independent, they said the NHS had been through its “longest and most damaging budget squeeze” ever.

The letter says patient care and staff morale have suffered, adding: “Things cannot go on like this.”

It is addressed to the leaders of the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats – all three parties have made major NHS pledges in recent days.

Leading figures from the British Medical Association, the Royal College of Nursing, the Royal College of Midwives, the Alzheimer’s Society, the Teenage Cancer Trust and the Faculty of Public Health are among those who have signed the letter.

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Disability benefit delays criticised

October 3, 2014   benefits, Carers, disability, Featured Article, Scotland

Delays in paying the new disability benefit are leaving many people without enough money to afford essential living costs, according to a report.

3 October 2014 Last updated at 01:33

Citizens Advice Scotland said people are waiting an average of six months between claiming the new Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and receiving the payment.

This can have a knock-on effect on other benefit claims, it said.

PIP has been introduced in Scotland over the past year.

It is part of wider welfare reforms by the UK government, and has replaced the Disabled Living Allowance (DLA) as the main benefit that helps disabled people meet the costs of their basic daily living.

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