Debt with Disability News Articles

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Re: Debt with Disability News Articles

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[B][SIZE=4][COLOR=Navy]Ofcom demands better service for disabled customers[/COLOR][/SIZE][/B]
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[CENTER][B]Regulator reacts to complaints about text relay services by proposing new features[/B]
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People with disabilities who rely on communication services to make phone calls are set to benefit from new measures being proposed by the communications regulator [URL="http://www.ofcom.org.uk/"]Ofcom[/URL].

By law, communication providers must provide text relay services for phone users with hearing and/or speech impairments. The service allows users to type messages into a textphone, which are delivered by a relay assistant to the recipient. The assistant then converts their reply back to text for the user. Ofcom research has shown that users found the current communication services slow, with conversations sometimes failing to flow naturally. Under the current service, users have to say "go ahead" after each part of a conversation.

The new features on the text relay service will include allowing users to interject during a conversation, instead of having to wait until the end of a message. They will also allow the service to be accessed on mainstream consumer electronics devices such as PCs and netbooks, in addition to existing relay equipment, such as textphones.

Ofcom's consumer group director, Claudio Pollack, said: "People with disabilities can face barriers when using communications services. Although the wide availability and use of broadband and mobile text services has provided greater opportunities for disabled people to communicate, people with hearing and/or speech impairments continue to meet barriers when using voice telephony.
"The proposed measures aim to reduce

[CENTER][URL="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/jul/28/ofcom-service-for-disabled-users"]Ofcom demands better service for disabled customers | Money | guardian.co.uk [/URL][/CENTER]

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Re: Debt with Disability News Articles

[CENTER][B]Choices Care group enters administration[/B]
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A care group providing services to about 800 people with learning disabilities in Scotland and north-east England has gone into administration.

Administrators were called in after Choices Care suffered continuing cash flow difficulties. The Livingston-based group employs 1,400 staff and provides supported living, home care and residential services.

Administrators at Zolfo Cooper said services were continuing uninterrupted. The supported living division has already been sold to Mears Care Scotland Limited, with about 500 staff transferring to their new employer with immediate effect.

[B]'Interested parties'[/B]
Zolfo Cooper said the registered services and home care divisions would continue to trade as normal with a view to selling them as going concerns.

The administrators said they had already received inquiries "from a number of.......[URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-14418232"]BBC News - Choices Care group enters administration[/URL]

[5corpio]

Re: Debt with Disability News Articles

[CENTER][COLOR=Navy][B]The emergency plumber who charged £2,880 an hour[/B]
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[CENTER][B][I]An 83-year-old disabled man felt coerced into paying £14,400 to have his household drain cleared[/I][/B]
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When Harold Stern's kitchen drain became blocked he did what many of us would do and called in his trusted local builder. When that builder couldn't shift the offending item and with the drain now overflowing, Stern turned to the Yellow Pages.

Looking for a company that had someone available that day, and one that quoted a reasonable charge (£59 for each 30 minutes) he settled on a firm based in Hatfield, Hertfordshire – Property Care Solutions.

Hours later the 83-year-old certainly had a clear drain. However, in a desperate attempt to stave off the threat of having to move out of his home while the drains were excavated, he had agreed to pay Property Care Solutions £14,400. The extraordinary bill was for just one man's work for five hours.

In paying it, he has became the latest victim of growing problem – rogue traders taking advantage of vulnerable customers to coerce them into paying a grossly inflated bill. There is evidence that the economic downturn is seeing a return to rip-off activities of tradesmen, with the elderly seen as an easy.......More on this story........[URL="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/aug/05/emergency-plumber-charged-mammoth-fee"]The emergency plumber who charged £2,880 an hour[/URL]

[5corpio]

Re: Debt with Disability News Articles

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[B][SIZE=4][COLOR=Navy]Southern Cross chief executive Jamie Buchan could collect £500,000[/COLOR][/SIZE][/B]
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[B][SIZE=2][I]Failed care home provider Southern Cross has said it will be up to individual directors as to whether they claim six-figure severance payments when the company closes later this year. [/I][/SIZE][/B]

[SIZE=2]Board directors including chief executive Jamie Buchan stand to collect up to £500,000 in severance pay despite the company collapsing after failing to keep up rental payments.
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[SIZE=2] Under contractual entitlements chief executive Jamie Buchan could receive £494,500, equivalent to 12 months pay. Finance director David Smith will also be entitled to 12 months pay. As he joined after the last annual report was published his salary has not been revealed. His predecessor Richard Midmer was paid £450,000 per year.
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[SIZE=2] Chairman Christopher Fisher said: "Jamie and the other directors have done a fantastic job. [However] it will be up them and the creditors as to whether any payments are made. It is not something that is high on our agenda." Most Southern Cross employees are expected to transfer directly to the new operators of the company's 750 homes meaning no payments will be required......Read more on this story [URL="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/supportservices/8689556/Southern-Cross-chief-executive-Jamie-Buchan-could-collect-500000.html"][COLOR=Navy][B]HERE[/B][/COLOR][/URL]
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[pompeyfaith]

Re: Debt with Disability News Articles

[B][URL="http://fullfact.org/blog/dwp_statistics_authority_esa_benefit-2918"]Statistics Authority steps in over disability benefits tests[/URL][/B]


11 August, 2011 - 15:53 -- Patrick Casey


The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) must improve the way it presents data on disability benefits claims, the official statistics watchdog has said.

Sir Michael Scholar, Chairman of the UK Statistics Authority, has said that Departmental presentation of data about whether people are 'fit to work' or eligible for Employment Support Allowance was "not as clear as it should be."

The Authority has now asked the DWP to assess the publication of these statistics against the [URL="http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/assessment/code-of-practice/index.html"]Code of Practice for Official Statistics[/URL]—guidelines designed to ensure coherent and trustworthy statistics.

Sir Michael's intervention comes after [URL="http://fullfact.org/blog/disability_benefits_media_inaccuracy_welfare_reform-2860"]Full Fact had raised concerns[/URL] with the UK Statistics Authority about how figures on disability benefit claimants were being presented to and by the press.

More: [URL]http://fullfact.org/blog/dwp_statistics_authority_esa_benefit-2918[/URL]

[pompeyfaith]

Re: Debt with Disability News Articles

[B] DWP admits disability reform based on dodgy figures, as reported by Left Foot Forward [/B]

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The Department for Work and Pensions has acknowledged that one of the key statistics it has used to justify radical change to disability benefits ‘gives a distorted picture’.
One of the main ‘stylised facts’ that the DWP has used to make the case for aggressive reform of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) has been that the caseload increased by 30% over the last eight years- a phenomenon which a DWP source described as ‘[URL="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1353111/Disability-benefits-Half-claimants-asked-prove-eligibility.html"]inexplicable[/URL]’.
Last year the Department’s use of this figure was challenged by the [URL="http://thebrokenofbritain.blogspot.com/"]Broken[/URL] of Britain. I analysed the underlying data for Left Foot Forward in [URL="http://www.leftfootforward.org/2011/02/rise-in-disability-living-allowance-explained/"]February [/URL]and came to similar conclusions,[B] arguing that the Department’s failure to take obvious explanatory factors into account meant that the use of the 30% figure was misleading.[/B]
In particular I stressed the built-in growth of DLA receipt among people over retirement age (the ‘maturing’ of the system, an intended feature of its design) and demographic change, which accounted for more than half of the growth.
DWP has now repeated this analysis using more recent and detailed [URL="http://statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/adhoc_analysis/2011/DLA_Growth_in_Caseload_FINAL.pdf"]figures[/URL]. These give a slightly lower overall increase of 29% to the DLA caseload from 2002/3 to 2010/11, but more importantly, DWP now accepts the need to take into account the factors it had previously neglected.
The department says:[INDENT][B]‘There have been substantial increases in receipt per head among those aged 65 and over as a result of the ‘maturing’ of DLA. [I]This distorts the overall picture of growth[/I]. [our italics]’.[/B]
[/INDENT]Correcting for this factor reduces the figure to 23%. [B]Correcting for demographic change reduces it further, to 16%.[/B]
The table shows how the growth in caseload breaks down between age groups, demographic change and change in rate of DLA receipt, comparing the Left Foot Forward estimates from February with DWP’s estimates.
Despite the differences in timeframe in the two analyses, the results are very similar: [B]only 44-45% of the total increase remains once the [URL="http://touchstoneblog.org.uk/2011/08/why-are-there-more-dla-claimants"]factors[/URL] we [URL="http://www.leftfootforward.org/2011/02/rise-in-disability-living-allowance-explained/"]raised[/URL] are taken into [/B][URL="http://touchstoneblog.org.uk/2011/08/why-are-there-more-dla-claimants"][B]account[/B][/URL].
[CENTER][URL="http://www.leftfootforward.org/images/2011/08/disability-figures.jpg"][IMG]http://www.leftfootforward.org/images/2011/08/disability-figures.jpg[/IMG][/URL][/CENTER]
It may be wondered why, if only 44% of the change remains after controlling for these factors, the rate of growth only falls from 29% to 16%. But the 16% figure is the growth [I]rate[/I] for the under 65 caseload (controlling for demographic change), while the 44% figure is the [I]share[/I] of total growth accounted for by under-65’s.
While it is welcome that the Department now recognises the inadequacies of its earlier statements on DLA caseload growth, the publication of this analysis at this late stage is a matter of concern, for two reasons.
The first is the stress the government has placed on the 30% figure as evidence of major flaws in the system requiring radical reform: the consultation document on DLA reform stated:[INDENT]“In just eight years the numbers receiving DLA has [sic] increased by 30%. The complexity and subjectivity of the benefit has led to a wider application than was originally intended.”
[/INDENT][B]With the Welfare Reform Bill having already passed its report stage in the Commons and due to go to the Lords in September, government surely needs to explain how the downward revision from 30% to 16% affects the case for its proposals[/B].

The second reason for disquiet is this: government is engaged in radical cuts and reforms to disability benefits, including a reduction in caseload and expenditure by 20% against projections for 2016 and the abolition of DLA and its replacement with a new system, Personal Independence Payment.
[B]Yet it now appears that prior to deciding on these ambitious projects, DWP failed to carry out the most rudimentary analysis of the changes in DLA caseload which reform was supposed to address. [/B]
The sort of analysis we published in February, and which DWP appears only now to have undertaken itself, represents a [I]minimal[/I] requirement for any serious consideration of welfare reform.
The government would appear to have launched itself into a radical programme of change affecting millions of disabled people without troubling to understand the first thing about the benefit it claims to be reforming. One has to ask whether this sort of amateurishness would be tolerated in any other major area of government spending.


[URL]http://www.leftfootforward.org/2011/08/dwp-admits-disability-reform-based-on-dodgy-figures-as-reported-by-left-foot-forward/[/URL]

[pompeyfaith]

Re: Debt with Disability News Articles

[B][SIZE=4]Atos doctors could be struck off[/SIZE][/B]

Twelve medics at the disability assessment centre are under investigation by the GMC over allegations of improper conduct

Twelve doctors employed by the firm that is paid £100m a year to assess people claiming [URL="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/disability"]disability[/URL] benefit are under investigation by the General Medical Council over allegations of improper conduct. The doctors, who work for Atos Healthcare, a French-owned company recently [URL="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jul/26/fit-to-work-tests-flawed?INTCMP=SRCH"]criticised by MPs[/URL] for its practices, face being struck off if they are found not to have put the care of patients first.
The [I]Observer[/I] has found that seven of the doctors have been under investigation for more than seven months. The other five were placed under investigation this year following complaints about their conduct.


More: [URL]http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/aug/13/atos-doctors-improper-conduct-disability[/URL]

[garlok]

Re: Debt with Disability News Articles

Hi Mate,

At last, thanks for your post above. Its something I said some time ago on here about ATOS. I suggested then that anyone who is hauled in should demand to see their license to practice medicine in the UK issued by the GMC or in the case of a nurse conducting the examination their certificate form the Royal College of Nursing. Then immediately report them to their governing/disciplinary bodies with a complaint. It is improper and gross professional misconduct by any of them to carry out any of these examinations and NOT report directly to your GP what ever Conman and his merry men tell you. That is straight from the horses mouth as well i.e. the Health service Ombudsman in writing in my case against Stafford Hospital.

The only person responsible for your health care and with a viable opinion is your GP by statute and regulation. Hence anyone esle is guilty of professional misconduct.

regards
Garlok

[charitynjw]

Re: Debt with Disability News Articles

[URL]http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/work-and-pensions-committee/news/ib-reassessment-substantive/[/URL]


[B]26 July 2011[/B]
The conclusion of a report published today (26 July) by the Work and Pensions select committee is that the Government's aims for the incapacity benefit (IB) reassessment process, which began nationwide in April, are not yet being properly communicated to claimants, leading to fear and anxiety amongst vulnerable people.......

[pompeyfaith]

Re: Debt with Disability News Articles

Garlok,

You are welcome m8, I have a DLA reclaim going through due process and will sooner or later be migrated from IB to ESA so am building up as much info on atos shoddy practice here for the benefit of myself and everyone else so thanks also for your input at post 23.

Regards

[pompeyfaith]

Re: Debt with Disability News Articles

Oh and this :toss fits in very well with (a)toss lol

[pompeyfaith]

Re: Debt with Disability News Articles

[B]Warning over disability living allowance shake-up[/B]


Ministers must "learn the lessons" of past welfare changes or risk their proposed shake-up of disability support leaving many in poverty, it is claimed.
Plans to replace the disability living allowance (DLA) could lead to 85% of claimants cutting back on basics like food and transport, a charity warned.
The Papworth Trust said there was also anxiety over the reassessment process.
The government says DLA is complex and inconsistent and changes are "overdue", but stresses cash payments will remain.
The coalition is planning to replace the allowance, introduced in 1992 to help disabled people cope with the extra costs they face in their daily lives, with a new benefit called Personal Independence Payment (PIP).


Link to More:


[URL]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14725055[/URL]

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Re: Debt with Disability News Articles

[CENTER][B]Southern Cross head to step down with no severance pay[/B]
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The chief executive of Southern Cross is expected to step down, the board of the failed care home operator has said. Jamie Buchan joined the Darlington firm in 2009 just as problems were emerging. The board said his anticipated departure was "part of the financial restructuring of the group" and would happen "once the process of transitioning homes is well advanced".

They added that Mr Buchan had chosen not to take severance pay. The package on offer was worth almost £500,000. "Jamie Buchan's decision not to take compensation when he steps down as chief executive later in the restructuring process is entirely consistent with the tireless and selfless approach he has adopted while leading the management team at Southern Cross," said chairman Christopher Fisher.

In February, Mr Buchan also agreed to cut his salary by 20% to £344,000. Southern Cross is set to shut down after landlords owning all 752 of its care homes said they wanted to...Read more on this story: [URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14728623"]BBC News - Southern Cross head to step down with no severance pay[/URL]

[5corpio]

Re: Debt with Disability News Articles

[CENTER][SIZE=4][COLOR=Navy][B]Spot checks on sick benefit staff ordered to be 'nicer'[/B][/COLOR][/SIZE]
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[SIZE=4][COLOR=Navy][/COLOR][/SIZE]The man responsible for improving a controversial sickness benefit test has told the BBC he is going to make unannounced visits to job centres. Professor Malcolm Harrington will do the spot checks to see if changes he has recommended to a test for people claiming Employment and Support Allowance are actually happening. He told [URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013q355"]Radio 4's You and Yours[/URL] that staff should be "nicer to people".

All claimants are being reassessed to see if they are fit to work.
To be eligible to continue receiving the benefit, people have to undergo a medical test called a Work Capability Assessment - introduced by the last Labour government. Complaints The coalition government asked Prof Harrington to review the test after complaints from disabled people, doctors, and charities that people were wrongly being found.....[B]Read more across at the Forum News Headlines Page [URL="http://forums.all-about-debt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=108440&postcount=134"][COLOR=DarkOrange]CLICK HERE[/COLOR][/URL][/B]

[pompeyfaith]

Re: Debt with Disability News Articles

[B]Who benefits from disability payments change?[/B]


Disabled people are living in fear of being left without enough money for food or transport if their payments are reduced or cut, according to a report released yesterday.

A study carried out by the Papworth Trust found that 86 per cent of disabled people would have to cut down on their essentials if Disability Living Allowance (DLA) payments were cut.

The DLA was introduced in 1992 to combat the higher expenses of day-to-day living for the disabled.
Most of the 3.1 million current recipients of payment will be reassessed under plans to axe the DLA and replace it with a Personal Independence Payment (PIP).
Meanwhile government officials insist that DLA payments are for additional living costs like increased transport costs or care fees.


More:


[URL]http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/who-benefits-from-a-change-in-disability-payments-1.873952?referrerPath=news[/URL]