Category Archives: ukcuts
Cheap loans plan to help elderly keep independence
Older people would be given financial help to stay in their homes longer and delay going into care under plans drawn up by Government advisers.
By James Kirkup
8:00AM GMT 30 Jan 2012
The Department of Health is considering plans for a major drive to reduce the number of people going into care homes and reduce the cost of social care.
The centrepiece of the initiative would be Government-subsidised loans to the elderly to fund home improvements including downstairs bathrooms, stairlifts and other “property improvements” that would allow them to stay in their own houses longer.
Younger people will also be urged to volunteer to spend time with elderly neighbours, helping address the loneliness that helps push some into care homes.
As politicians struggle to overhaul the fragmented social care system, ministers are looking for new ways to reduce the flow of older people into residential care, which is much more expensive than remaining at home.
Brave people demonstrating in London for disabled people everywhere
Disabled campaigners block central London over Welfare Reform Bill
Sunday 29 January 2012
Wheelchair users brought one of central London’s busiest junctions to a standstill by chaining themselves together in the middle of Oxford Circus, blocking the turning into Regent Street.
The demonstration was organised by the direct action group UK Uncut and disability campaigners, to protest against the Government’s proposed Welfare Reform Bill, which campaigners say will disadvantage thousands of people by cutting allowances and benefits.
Elderly fall through gaps in broken care system
Elderly people are being let down by a lack of co-operation between the NHS and council-run social care, MPs are set to warn this week.
A report by the all-party health select committee is expected to recommend the two budgets should be pooled, to prevent wrangling over who pays for care.
Dr Dan Poulter, a Conservative MP on the committee, said the elderly were “falling through the gaps” between the services.
He said the decision to allow GPs to abandon responsibility for out of hours care had been “the single biggest disaster in medical care” in a decade, causing more elderly people to attend hospital casualty departments because they had nowhere else to turn.
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