Tag Archives: Older care

Carer sets up at-home service for elderly people

August 22, 2012   Carers, Older care

A CARER who says she struggled to find adequate support for her mother-in-law has set up a service to provide at-home care for elderly people.

Diane Chandler aims to create 50 jobs after taking on the franchise for Home Instead Senior Care, covering an area from Darlington down into Northallerton.

Two months into the business, she has five staff and 15 in training, and is confident of growing the head count of carers.

“We’ve had a lot of response initially – we should be able to create 50 jobs easily,” she said.

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Revealed: Growing number of elderly dying alone with no relatives

August 21, 2012   Carers, Older care, Wales
  • The number of elderly people dying alone in Wales with no relatives has been highlighted in figures obtained by WalesOnline.
  • By Brendan Hughes, WalesOnline
  • Aug 21 2012

 

The Eleanor Rigby statue in Liverpool

The Eleanor Rigby statue in Liverpool

Older people’s charity Age Cymru warned that as Wales’ population aged, the problem of loneliness was growing, with older men most at risk of isolation.

Figures from Welsh health boards show almost £400,000 was spent over the past four years on holding funerals for patients with no traceable relatives – a problem the Beatles sang about in their 1966 hit Eleanor Rigby.

More than 620 funerals have been paid for by health authorities in Wales between 2008-09 and 2011-12 for patients who have died with no next of kin.

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Continuing Healthcare: deadline looms for 'secret' care fund

August 19, 2012   Carers, dementia, Older care

The little-known NHS Continuing Healthcare benefit can help the most vulnerable, but with the clock ticking thousands of people could forfeit backdated payments

 

If the main reason for a person going into a home is ill-health, they should be eligible for Continuing Healthcare, which means the NHS covers all the costs.

Time is running out for many of Britain’s most vulnerable people who are struggling to pay crippling care bills and could be eligible for several years backdated funding from a “secret” NHS scheme. If no one acts on their behalf before the end of next month the right to retrospective payments going back to 2004 will be lost.

Every year thousands of family properties are sold to enable mainly elderly people to meet the costs of their care. But if the main reason for a person going into a home is ill-health they should be eligible for the virtually unknown Continuing Healthcare, which means that the NHS covers all the costs, including accommodation. There is no ceiling on the amount that can be paid out, there is no means test and it is not age-related.

Anyone who is successful in claiming on behalf of a loved one could be entitled to have the payments backdated to April 2004, even if their relative is no longer alive. But applications must be submitted before 30 September.

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