DO CARERS UK SUPPORT THE PERSONAL CARE AT HOME BILL ??

[g.herschel]

House of parliament Tuesday 20-45
debate re pesonal care at home bill in a bitter exchange between PHIL HOPE HEALTH MINISTER and STEPHEN O`BRIEN SHADOW HEALTH MINISTER Phil Hope accused the shadow minister of scaremongering when they discussed the removal of ATTENDANCE ALLOWANCE and DISABILITY LIVING ALLOWANCE- Phil Hope then said he had the support of IMELDA REDMOND C.E.O. CARERS UK he then quoted Ms REDMOND .
Does IMELDA REDMOND support this bill if she does she is in favour of the removal of the D.L.A. & A.A. if she does not support the bill and wants to retain the D.L.A. & A.A. she should issue a statment A.S.A.P. and make it clear that she was misquoted by PHIL HOPE Health Minister.

if my memory serves me well i am sure Phil Hope has used this statement before carersuk do support the bill but within caresuk report they went on to say they were against the removal of benefits such as D.L.A.& A.A. and said it would place the disabled / carers and their familes in hardship even so we should make it clear that Phil Hope is out of order claiming that carers uk support the bill as it stands .....i rest my case my lord .....and i am of to kip early start wed...

[g.herschel]

FREE PERSONAL CARE over and over again the phrase FREE PERSONAL CARE was used by government ministers how can they call it FREE PERSONAL CARE when some 2-3 million over 65`s will lose on average £250 per month and if they receive the same level of cash support provided by the local authority via social services less than £10 per day the whole scheme is or will be a shambolic bureaucratic nightmare do you honestly believe the local authority and social services can deliver this new scheme ......

[g.herschel]

FREE CARE AT HOME - what will it cost ? it is for the critically ill and they will be cared for at home FREE if they are so ill and need care just what kind of care will the receive? will it be a couple of hours a day what would that cost 2 hour`s per day = £210 per week no way would they be prepared to pay that kind of cash for FREE CARE AT HOME within a few weeks you would be shipped off to the nearest care / rest home - the disability benefits if removed would release just £10 per day for FREE CARE ..........

[Scally]

If you think this knockabout stuff is important, you should really stand for Parliament yourself George, most of us just look as this kind of debate as the usual confrontational fantasy guff across the dispatch box by minor league soon-to-be-forgotten strutting half-wit politicians that doesn't even merit notice. Yes, hopefully welfare benefits will be reformed in due course by whichever party is in power later this year, and some of us carers also think that parts of the Bill have merit, and that it is high time we had reform. If that happens, existing claimants will have preserved rights, because they always do, to do otherwise would be political suicide. Most of this stuff wont happen for four years at least. So, what's the real problem?

[Matt Hill]

Hi George

Yes Carers UK absolutely support this Bill. This bill is about introducing the principle of free personal care and we have been fighting for years on this becasue that is what our members told us they wanted. If this goes through then even if we have a change of government it gives us a bargaining position on the issue of charging.

This bill does not have anything in it about AA or DLA. Let's be clear, this bill will not remove AA or DLA. It is simply about charges, no mention of DLA or AA.

We have made our position clear on DLA and AA as they stand in the Green Paper. We do not support it's removal but again I will say - there is nothing before Parliament proposing this. There is mention in the Green paper that changes to AA are an option. But that is all at this stage -a discussion document and Govt have given explicit reassurances on DLA.

Matt

[poppett]

I consider myself lucky and possibly unique in having an MP who is a friend, but has an elderly mother who is using the local homecare scheme run by the local authority. He totally understands what my life as a multiple carer was like when mum was alive and the differences since she died four years ago. I am still a multiple carer but don`t have everyone under the same roof anymore.

The local authority can not provide my dad with the free personal care plan he is assessed as being in need of without taking any of his benefits away from him. The unmet need is picked up by myself and my disabled OH when he is able and a dear friend who lives nearer to dad than I do and is like a sister to me, dealing with any crisis when I am unable to do so. His warden charges are means tested, but they take full AA into the equation so he has to pay the full charges for the warden, despite the fact his AA is all used up providing the services he has to pay for that free personal care doesn`t cover, for example his laundry.....putting it into the machine is personal care, adding powder and switching it on, transferring it to the drier and taking it out again is considered domestic and has to be paid for, but folding it into drawers is personal care. With a stupid system like this the government (whoever they may be after the general election) might as well blow themselves to kingdom come, as one GuyFawkes tried to do. Twenty homecarers require over five management to organise them, and heads of department after that.........too many chiefs and not enough indians.

Dad says whatever they do it won`t be in his lifetime, but his idea that once he died they would bury him for the smell is but a distant dream if the fiasco of my sister inlaw passing away last year is anything to go on.

Sorry if I have hijacked the thread, rant over, but dad`s AA doesn`t stretch as far as everyone thinks.

Take care
Meg

[Matt Hill]

His warden charges are means tested, but they take full AA into the equation so he has to pay the full charges for the warden, despite the fact his AA is all used up providing the services he has to pay for that free personal care doesn`t cover, for example his laundry.....putting it into the machine is personal care, adding powder and switching it on, transferring it to the drier and taking it out again is considered domestic and has to be paid for, but folding it into drawers is personal care.

This is one of the reasons why the AA proposal in the Green paper isn't up to much. The government's idea is that AA is for care so let's give that money to local authorities and it'll be extra money for care budgets. But that isn't the case as pretty much anyone who already gets AA and a Local Authrority service is already giving their AA to the council in the forum of charges. So it's not really "extra" money.

[g.herschel]

The whole point of my post was the claim that carers uk supported the bill- PHIL HOPE used cares uk as and example of a group who supported the bill this claim came after he had accused the conservatives of scaremongering re the removal of A.A. & D.L.A. i know the care at home is to be funded by the cash from the N.H.S. budget and local authority budget but why do they constantly refer to the removal of benefits A.A.& D.L.A. to fund care at home ---


can someone tell me if the removal of D.L.A. & A.A. will be for the new national care service and not for personal care at home ....

also in the debate PHIL HOPE said carers would have to work with G.P`s - P.CT`s local authorities / social services to help provide the right level of care for their caree to receive at home as obviously they know what the elderly disabled person wants but he did not think this would create extra work for carers .

[Matt Hill]

can someone tell me if the removal of D.L.A. & A.A. will be for the new national care service and not for personal care at home ....

Hi George

DLA is not being removed, there are no proposals to remove DLA, not even any suggestions from government to remove DLA. You keep repeating it as if it's fact! Government have catagorically stated that DLA is not in their sights and it's not part of the green paper proposals.

They have put forward an idea in the green paper that AA would be phased out and that money put into Local authrority budgets. Not sure what the distinction is you're making between National Care service and personal care at home? to me that means the same thing?

why do they constantly refer to the removal of benefits A.A.& D.L.A. to fund care at home ---

I don;t think they do. The Tories are the trying to create a campaign out of it. I think there's a difference between what the proposals in the Green paper actually say and the political point scoring and bun fights at Westminster

Matt

[entity]

MPs -fear it so why shouldn't we?
Article [Thursday, 14, Jan 2010 12]

Matt

DLA is not being removed, there are no proposals to remove DLA, not even any suggestions from government to remove DLA.

Why then do the opposition keep mentioning it?
It isn't scaremongering as far as I’m concerned, Labour is not telling the whole truth and why are they trying to rush this through? The Queens speach was one prime example; and after listening to the debate in parliament sad to say the Conservatives were telling truth and Labour were following the party line!

John Baron MP attacks Government’s plans to scrap pensioner benefits -Gordon Brown’s plans to scrap disability benefits for the elderly. The small print of Labour’s plans to create a National Care Service reveals they will scrap Attendance Allowance and Disability Living Allowance for pensioners to pay for it.

• Attendance Allowance, worth an average of £60 a week,
• Disability Living Allowance, worth an average of £75 a week.

http://www.politics.co.uk/mps/press-rel ... 353232.htm

PS. I am not a Conservative or Labour voter