Full state pension for stay-at-home mothers and carers
Stay-at-home mothers and carers will receive a full state pension for the first time under a radical overhaul of the country’s retirement system, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
Millions of mothers who have chosen to take time out of work will no longer be penalised once they are pensioners, Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, has announced.
However, the overhaul is expected to hit wealthier workers, as the state second pension will be scrapped.
At the moment, people who do not work for 30 years do not qualify for the full basic state pension. Under the reforms, mothers and carers will be treated as if they had worked throughout their lives, benefiting them by £2,000 a year.
Mr Duncan Smith said women would be the “major winners” in the reformed system, which will mean that everyone who works or looks after others will receive a flat-rate payment worth at least £140 a week.
The measure will be applied to women who retire from 2015, giving an average of £40 extra a week to mothers who took time out of work. Currently, they receive a reduced entitlement for each year out of employment.
£2m service to aid dementia sufferers
DEMENTIA sufferers and their families are to get help from a new support service being launched in South Tyneside
By VERITY WARD
Published on Saturday 12 May 2012 07:20
The new initiative, called the Memory Protection Service, aims to provide access to information, support, early diagnosis, treatment and care for people with the condition along with their families and carers.
The service, which will cost £2m a year to run, is being paid for by NHS South of Tyne and Wear and run by Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, which specialises in mental health and disability care.
Son fears being trapped in 24-hr care for mum after service cuts
CUTS FEARS … Alan Blackett caring for his mother Edna.
A DEVOTED carer to his disabled mother fears he will be left ‘high and dry’ after he learned vital support was being withdrawn.
Alan Blackett, 35, looks after mum Edna, 68, 24 hours a day.
She suffers from chronic breathing problems, diabetes and a host of other physical problems which require full-time care.
Mr Blackett, of Redwell Lane, Marsden, said he is more than willing to help and ‘does it for the love’.
But now the only support he gets is about to be withdrawn.
