Tag Archives: Older care
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.
Public ‘unaware’ of care-home costs – and of probability they will need care themselves
Nearly half of all respondents to a survey said they did not know the average weekly cost of a place in a residential care home. Of those that did answer, the mean figure suggested was £396.58 – around £140 below the average fee of £531.The survey also found that many people underestimate the probability of needing care themselves in the future. Out of 2,271 people asked , more than half believed the probability was lower than 40 per cent. Yet research suggests that 65-year-old men have a 68 per cent chance of needing care before they die, while women have an 85 per cent chance. “Voters may struggle to ensure that the quality of services provided to vulnerable members of their community is appropriate … if they do not know what their local authority pays for care,” the report warns.
‘Good neighbours’ are not the answer to our care problems
‘Good neighbours’ are not the answer to our care problems
Professional care is expensive.
Thursday, September 12, 2013
12:00 PM
So Suffolk County Council’s cabinet has decided to have a review of the way home care is delivered in the county . . . and is talking about community services, improving services etc etc.
I would love to think that the county council could find the Holy Grail that will allow more and more people to be cared for in a better way in the community while spending less money.
Sadly, in the real world these aspirations are wholly unrealistic. The changing demographics of the 21st Century mean many of the “community solutions” are not viable.
There seems to be an idea that being a “good neighbour” in communities across Suffolk will ease the burden of home care. That is just not the case. There is the world of difference in Mrs Smith’s neighbour knocking on the door and seeing if she wants anything from the village shop and the kind of professional care that is increasingly being needed.
