Tag Archives: carers
Amid growing poverty, councils have failed to save fund for those in need
From April 2015, a £180m a year hardship fund will be abolished. Councils have simply not made a strong enough argument for it
Iain Duncan Smith‘s axe has struck again. This time its local authority welfare assistance schemes on the block. But we’re not talking reform or even cuts. The scheme had already been significantly cut last year. From April 2015 a £180m a year hardship fund will be abolished completely. That’s right. Scrapped. A vital safety net will no longer be there.
For years I’ve seen the value of crisis loans, which used to operate under the social fund until the government devolved funding last year, allowing councils to set up their own discretionary crisis funds. They’re a critical part of the welfare system to help people in desperate need.
New bid to tackle the thousands in fuel poverty in Norfolk
A task force of county councillors are looking at how to stop vulnerable people having to choose between eating or heating. Photo credit: Help the aged/PA.
Dan Grimmer Monday, January 6, 2014
6:30 AM
Together, we can do more to stop people in Norfolk from having to choose between heating and eating – that is the message from a task force set up to investigate the scale of the problem in the county.
Surviving Winter
Norfolk’s Surviving Winter appeal has smashed through the £25,000 barrier. But requests are still coming in faster than donations, as some of our neediest elderly people feel the chill.
Norfolk Community Foundation last month issued a fresh call to those who may not need their winter fuel payments to pass the money on to those who do.
Surviving Winter, backed by the EDP, has been a lifeline for hundreds of Norfolk’s neediest households, giving grants towards the cost of fuel.
There are three ways you can give to the appeal:
Depression 'over-diagnosed' with drugs
Dished out to patients who are simply sad or unable to sleep, warns expert
- Chris Dowrick claims half of patients labelled depressed were misdiagnosed
- Liverpool University professor calls on diagnosis guidelines to be tightened
- Patients ‘becoming reliant on drugs they don’t need’
- Mental health charities reject research – and say more people are being diagnosed due to pressure from debt and unemployment
|
Millions of patients are being wrongly diagnosed with depression when they are simply sad, according to a new report
Million of patients are being wrongly diagnosed with depression when they are simply sad, according to a new report.
Anti-depressants are being dished out to people grieving loved ones, suffering sexual problems or even unable to sleep, claims a newly-published scientific paper published by academics at Liverpool Unversity.
The number of people diagnosed with mental illnesses like depression has doubled since 2002. It is believed more than five million people are now labelled depressed or suffering anxiety in the UK.
Liverpool University’s Professor of Primary Medical Care, Chris Dowrick, claims in a new report that up to half of these patients have been misdiagnosed.
Writing in the British Medical Journal, the academic, who also works as a GP, said: ‘Over-diagnosis is now more common than under diagnosis.’
