Home care fees rise by up to 160pc as rationing takes hold
Elderly and disabled people who need care in their own homes have been hit with rises of up to 160 per cent in their bills in just five years, new research shows.
7:00AM BST 19 Sep 2013
Home care fees rise by up to 160pc as rationing takes hold Photo: IAN JONES
The number of areas in which the state support for care is available to anyone other than the most frail has also halved in the same period, it discloses.
A study by Which?, the consumer rights group, exposes the full extent to which councils are rationing care as they attempt to absorb major cuts to their budgets.
Based on information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, it discloses that there are now only 12 local authorities in England and Wales still offering care to people whose needs are officially assessed as “moderate”. Five years ago it was able to identify 26 areas where this was still available.
Carer advised by council she’d be better off QUITTING her job and living on benefits
Battle: Chelsea Press and daughter Lacey Battle: Chelsea Press and daughter Lacey
SWNS
A single mum has been told by council staff that she would be “better off” resigning her job and living on benefits.
Chelsea Press, a part-time carer for the elderly, was seeking financial advice after struggling to pay bills.
But the 23-year-old was left speechless when her local Basildon district council in Essex suggested she should stop working 27 hours a week.
The consultation revealed Chelsea, who has a two-year-old daughter Lacey, would have £2,850 more each year – £54.80 a week – if she was unemployed.
After The Funeral
That time no one talks about
The Sound of Silence
with thanks from @blabers
I’ve always been one to moan about the lack of “me time” in my life. In fact, when I was having counselling for my Generalised Anxiety Disorder, one of the things we built in to my plan was to find at least ten minutes a day when I could be on my own and just be silent.
You see, I always used to crave silence. My job means I’m always talking, or surrounded by people who are talking, or who are playing music and sometimes the cacophony in my head would just get to the point where I thought it was going to explode. Add to that the spaghetti of worrying thoughts that I suffer from occasionally and you can see why I wanted to learn to meditate.
