The Public Services Ombudsman has upheld a disabled student's complaint about the stress he suffered over the management of his grant claims. The student, known as Mr K, said Gwynedd council made unnecessary grant reassessments and unreasonably withheld payments of his disability allowance. The report blamed a "catalogue of communication failures" between the council and the Student Loans Company.
A woman with learning disabilities has been stripped of her free travel pass after a west London council said that her IQ was too high for her to qualify. Yvonne Chappell, 39, has had a Freedom Pass for 10 years but Hounslow Council turned down her renewal application.
Lib Dem Euro MP Liz Lynne has demanded more action to protect elderly people in long term care at a cross party meeting between MEPs and Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner Laszlo Andor in Brussels. The purpose of the meeting of the Parliament's Age Intergroup yesterday was for MEPs with a special interest on age issues to quiz the Commissioner directly about issues affecting older people across the European Union.
In 2008 the government announced it was doubling the amount of money to fund rest periods for long-term carers, £50m was to be spent in 2010 and £100m next year. Two charities, the Princess Royal Trust for Carers and the Crossroads Care Charity, have recently analysed FOI (freedom of information) requests from 100 PCTs and claim only 23% of this years money has been used to increase services for carers.
Surrey County Council, NHS Surrey and Friends of the Elderly have teamed up to launch a pioneering project to support people affected by dementia.
Some learning disability patients in long-stay disability hospitals have been waiting up to 15 years to be resettled, a new report has said. According to a NI Assembly Public Accounts Committee report, this is despite being assessed as fit to leave and keen to move into the community. It found that 250 patients were still in hospitals, many of whom were keen to be resettled. The report examined Muckamore Abbey, Longstone and Lakeview hospitals.
