Tag Archives: ukcuts

Recession 'worst for mentally ill'

July 27, 2013   Carers, mental health, ukcuts

Across Europe, people with mental health problems have been disproportionately affected

 

Unemployment is hitting the mentally ill twice as hard as it is the general population, a study has found.

Across Europe, people with mental health problems have been disproportionately affected by the recession, said researchers.

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Elderly care cap in England to benefit ‘one in eight’

July 18, 2013   Carers, Older care, ukcuts
18 July 2013 Last updated at 01:28

Elderly care cap in England to benefit ‘one in eight’

By Nick Triggle Health correspondent, BBC News

An elderly woman's hand on a stick The cap on care costs in England is due to be introduced in 2016

The £72,000 cap on elderly care costs in England, due to be introduced in 2016, will benefit one in eight people, the government has said.

The revelation came as the government set out details about how it will work.

It confirmed there would be a deferred payment scheme under which the local council would pay care fees and claim them back from the estate after death.

Labour said the details would not help elderly and disabled people struggling to get the support they needed now.

Ministers say the cap on costs is a solution to the elderly care crisis, but the level at which the cap is being set is twice what was recommended, meaning the numbers benefiting will be restricted.

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“Too big to fail”? Care home closures and the price of market failure

July 17, 2013   Carers, DOH, Older care

By the Centre for Health and the Public Interest, 15th July 2013

The real human costs of market failure and care home closure for the residents and their families

As the Competition Commission points out in the guidance which it is uses when conducting a market investigation, truly effective markets are characterised by ‘uncertainty, turbulence and change’.

And nowhere has market turbulence been more keenly felt than in the care home sector for older people, which has been subject to the vicissitudes of the market for the past 20 years.  Most recently, the care home chain Southern Cross went into administration as a result of an unsustainable debt financing model.  As the care homes owned by Southern Cross were looking after 31, 000 people, the government was faced with the prospect that nearly 9% of all the available care beds in England would disappear in one fell swoop.

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