Category Archives: ukcuts

‘Shocking’ bedroom tax should be axed, says UN investigator

September 11, 2013   Carers, ukcuts, Uncategorized

‘Shocking’ bedroom tax should be axed, says UN investigator

Housing expert Raquel Rolnik says policy could constitute a violation of the human right to adequate housing

Raquel Rolnik

Raquel Rolnik, UN special rapporteur on housing, right, with Anne Lear, a housing officer in Govanhill, Glasgow. Photograph: Martin Hunter for the Guardian

The United Nations’ special investigator on housing has told the British government it should scrap the bedroom tax, after hearing “shocking” accounts of how the policy was affecting vulnerable citizens during a visit to the UK.

Britain’s record on housing was also worsening from a human rights perspective, Raquel Rolnik, the UN special rapporteur on housing, said in a Guardian interview after presenting her preliminary findings to the government.

Rolnik, a former urban planning minister in Brazil, said Britain’s previously good record on housing was being eroded by a failure to provide sufficient quantities of affordable social housing, and more recently by the impact of welfare reform.

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Million more elderly outside care system than before financial crash

September 8, 2013   Carers, Older care, ukcuts

Million more elderly outside care system than before financial crash

The full impact of rationing of elderly care is exposed in new figures showing that the number of older people outside the system has surged by more than one million since the onset of the financial crisis.

 

Million more elderly outside care system than before financial crash

By , Social Affairs Editor

10:00PM BST 07 Sep 2013

At a time when the number of people past retirement age has been growing faster than at any point in history, the numbers receiving any help from the state for their everyday care needs has dropped sharply.

According to figures collated by the charity Age UK, the proportion of the retired population of England receiving care has fallen by a third in the last five years.

It provides a stark illustration of how, despite efforts by councils to shield care for the elderly and disabled from the full impact of austerity cuts, existing services are being rationed to all but those with the most severe needs.

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Suffolk: New ways of delivering care on the way

September 5, 2013   Carers, Older care, ukcuts

Suffolk: New ways of delivering care on the way

Suffolk Family Carers chief executive Jacqui Martin Suffolk Family Carers chief executive Jacqui Martin

Thursday, September 5, 2013
9:00 AM

Home care for frail people across Suffolk could get a radical shake-up after a county-wide consultation over the next few months.

Meals on Wheels changes

The county is also looking at how it provides community meals services from September next year.

At present it provides 219,000 hot meals to about 725 customers a year. The cost of the meals is £1.4 million, and the £5.50 cost of the meals brings in £1.2 million – meaning the cost to the council is just over £200,000 a year.

About half of the meals have to be put on plates for the customer, 35% require diabetic diets, and 15% need “modified texture diets.”

Dr Murray said the council would be looking at how these meals were delivered – for those who were able to cope it might be better to deliver frozen meals that could be microwaved when needed. The cost of those is £3.20 each.

However because an increasing number of customers were very frail, that might not be a solution for many of those requiring the service.

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