Benefits etc.

Anyone like to guess where the cuts in benefits will fall. My guess is Social Care and Unpaid Carers. We were clobbered last year and it looks like the same next April.
This will come at a time when the NHS is looking to solve its’ bed crisis by forcing families to take on the care of their elderly family.
They are changing a discharge criteria from medically fit for discharge to medically optimised for discharge. By this they mean the person can heal at home. Not so bad if there are medical services in the community to support the person and their family. There will not be. So more people of working age will be pressured into caring, more elderly unpaid carers will be pushed beyond their limit.
Once again unpaid carers are going to be sacrificed.

You’re probably not wrong, Norman. I won’t go into to detail on here as CUK has to be politically neutral, but there seems to be a group of politicians who don’t believe government should be helping carers to do what they see as family duty.

Slaves of the 21st century!
The real issue is that Direct Payments were, according to the Care Act, supposed to be available for everyone who needed care. That person could then choose who could support them INCLUDING FRIENDS AND FAMILY! However, councils won’t pay family members in some areas, including Hampshire, where I live!

The government guidance on this is that family carers should not normally be paid. However, there are riders to that: first is that if the carer doesn’t live in the same home as the person they care for, it is most certainly allowed by law. Secondly, if the carer has unique skills and knowledge of the person cared for. Then it’s ok even if the carer lives in the same home.

I’m not entirely sure that a council can legally have a blanket policy, as (if memory serves) the guidance suggests that it depends on individual circumstances. A blanket decision could be seen to be discriminatory against the individual to be cared for.

The Care Act Regulations specifically say “including friends and family” when talking about Direct Payments, and the right of the disabled person to choose who and how DP’s are used. The Ombudsman has said council’s are “fettering their discretion” and being too strict on how they are used. In another Ombudsman decision a council has been criticised for only allowing parents 48 hours a week (because of the Working Hours Directive). My son’s home is 15 miles away, he has no carers who have the required skills and knowledge to support him with his hobbies - driving steam engines. They don’t know any of his steam friends, so if I don’t do it, no one does. The Flying Scotsman is at Swanage Railway this week, and M wanted to go and see it, as we knew the former owner, Tony Marchington, and his father Frank. Instead, staff took him last weekend as it was cheaper! No discussion with me, as appointee. have been diagnosed with a spinal problem and can’t drive far.

That is way out of order.