Tag Archives: health

Families face choice between food and heating, warn charities

December 6, 2012   Carers, disability, family, fuel poverty, Older care, poverty, ukcuts

By Gabriella Jozwiak, Thursday 06 December 2012

Families on benefits could be forced to choose between paying for food and heating, as a result of measures announced in the autumn statement, children’s charities have warned.

Children and young people’s organisations warned that families would be hit by the real-terms cuts to working-age benefits and tax credits.

Jobseeker’s Allowance, income support and child tax credit are among the working-age benefits that will increase by just one per cent over the next three years, equating to a real-terms cut, given that inflation is currently running at more than two per cent.

The Children’s Society suggested the one per cent cap would mean an unemployed, lone parent with one child and no other income will only receive about £4 more each month after housing costs in 2015.

Read More

NHS to pay for singing lessons and hotel stays

November 30, 2012   Carers, disability, health, Older care

Tens of thousands of people will be able to get money from their doctors which can be used for activities including singing lessons and hotel stays.

Personal health budgets enable people to choose what help they need and who to buy it from.

By Stephen Adams, Medical Correspondent

7:00AM GMT 30 Nov 2012

Norman Lamb, the care minister, said the option of having a ‘personal health budget’ would be made available to some 56,000 people in England with significant health needs. It would “put them back in control of their care,” he said.

The idea is to give people the power to choose exactly what care they need for their condition or disability – and buy it from whoever they like – rather than having it decided and provided by the NHS.

Charities for the elderly and disabled have broadly welcomed the initiative, which has been trialled for three years, but there are worries about some people misusing the money.

Read More

Report recommends ways to get older people online

November 29, 2012   Carers, Independent living, internet, Older care
Family carers need the Internet
29 November 2012
By Rachael Fergusson

New report says older internet users are less isolated, lonely and feel more in control than non-users.

New report says older internet users are less isolated, lonely and feel more in control than non-users.

Older people who use the internet are more likely to feel in control, and be less isolated and lonely than those that do not, a new report has found.

‘Nudge or Compel?: Can behavioural economics tackle the digital exclusion of older people?,’ has recommended a number of ways to get older people online and tackle digital exclusion.

Published by the International Longevity Centre – UK, a leading think tank on longevity and demographic change, the report said that over 7.5 million adults had never used the internet, and the majority of non-users were older, had disabilities or were in the lowest social classes.

The report highlighted new analysis of data from the ‘English Longitudinal Study of Ageing’ on the behavioural traits that accompanied internet usage among older people. It showed that people who said they used the internet, tended to report feeling more in control of various aspects of their lives, and were also more likely to say they ‘hardly ever or never’ felt isolated, the same went with feeling lonely. While those that said they did not use the internet were more likely to say they ‘often’ felt isolated from others.

Those that did not own a computer were also more likely to feel they were unable to learn a new skill, while those that did were more likely to agree they could.

Read More