Debt with Disability News Articles

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This is the private sector again capitalism and greed

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Re: Debt with Disability News Articles

[I][B]Missed this one off:[/B][/I]

[CENTER][SIZE=4][B]Good Care Guide launch prompts concerns[/B][/SIZE]
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Concerns have been raised about a new website that lets people post their thoughts on care providers in England. [B]LINKY:[/B] [URL="http://www.goodcareguide.co.uk/"]The Good Care Guide[/URL] aims to give relatives a place to go to share their views on the service they have received from care homes and nurseries.
Government watchdogs helped develop the scheme but critics say firms could be put out of business if damaging posts are published.
Its backers say it will provide "real, honest feedback on what is available". The guide gives people the opportunity to rate 60,000 care homes, home care, nurseries and nanny agencies in England.
In December, Care Services Minister Paul Burstow told the BBC the website was one of a number of plans to "shine a light on bad practice". But Sheila Scott, chief executive of the National Care Association, told the BBC: "If a care home is ruined by a malicious comment, which is conceivably possible, then it's not just our member and their staff but the vulnerable people who are put at real risk, so that's our concern."....[B]Read more here--: [URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17084680"] Good Care Guide launch prompts concerns[/URL][/B]

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[QUOTE=5corpio;153731][B]Four Seasons: Care home provider in new debt talks[/B]

The UK's largest care home provider, which bought many of the Southern Cross properties, has said it is in talks to raise money to pay its debts. Four Seasons must pay back £780m of debt this September but has said it is unlikely to be able to raise that much again from lenders. Instead it has entered talks with investors to try to attract new investment of up to £250m. The GMB union has warned the company may face ongoing financial difficulty. The group looks after 20,000 people and employs 30,000 staff across around 500 properties. "We warned back in the autumn [when Southern Cross was sold] that there was a great risk that residents and staff were jumping from the frying pan into the fire," the GMB's Justin Bowden told the BBC.....Read more here--: [URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16947973"]BBC News - Four Seasons: Care home provider in new debt talks[/URL][/QUOTE]

More update:

[CENTER] [B]Four Seasons care homes in talks with new investors
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The company's largest shareholder, Royal Bank of Scotland, and several other investors, are also looking at pumping extra cash into the business, which is responsible for 500 nursing homes and 25,000 residents. Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, who owns a healthcare business called CK Life Sciences, and private equity group Kohlberg Kravis Roberts have both been linked to a potential deal with the company, which is struggling with £780m of debt. Four Seasons became the largest UK operator following the collapse of Southern Cross. It took on 140 of Southern Cross's properties after last year's crisis. Other interested parties include the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Canada's Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. The company has begun refinancing talks ahead of a September deadline but there are....[B]Read more here--: [URL="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/pharmaceuticalsandchemicals/9092260/Four-Seasons-care-homes-in-talks-with-new-investors.html"]Four Seasons care homes in talks with new investors - Telegraph[/URL][/B]

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[CENTER][B]Care Homes[/B]

BBC Radio 4 @12.00 20/02/12 [URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01c7lk8"][B]LINKY[/B][/URL]

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[CENTER][B]Angry NHS Protesters Heckle Health Secretary[/B]
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[B]The Health Secretary has been confronted by angry protesters outside Downing Street claiming key organisations had been excluded from talks on the Government's controversial NHS reforms.[/B]

A small group of around 40 incensed health professionals tried to prevent Andrew Lansley from entering, jostling and jeering as he tried to placate them. Speaking to one demonstrator, June Hautot, Mr Lansley said: "We are not privatising the NHS." "Don't you dare lie to me," she screamed back at him. After the clash Sky's Sophy Ridge asked the 75-year-old what she thought of Mr Cameron inviting select groups for the talks. She said: "They (the Government) only look at the few because they know the majority are against them."

The former NHS union representative from Tooting, south London, protesting under the banner Keep NHS Public, described the encounter with Mr Lansley. "He said, 'I want to get through' and I said 'You can wait. There's a lot of people out there waiting for treatment and if your bill goes through, they will be waiting a lot longer'."...[B]Read more here--: [URL="http://news.sky.com/home/politics/article/16173281"]NHS Plans: Protesters Clash With Andrew Lansley David Cameron Meeting Health And Social Care Bill
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[CENTER][B]Grieving daughter landed with £3,000 care home bill - for failing to give a month's notice of her father's DEATH[/B]
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A grieving daughter has been ordered to pay £3,000 to a nursing home because she did not give a month’s notice of her father’s death. Sue Cann, 54, was told she had incurred the costs because a period of 28 days had to be paid in the event of a resident ‘moving out or passing away’. She received the bill the day after the funeral of her father, Kenneth, who died last month aged 79. Before his death he had spent 17 months at the care home, for which he paid £63,000 of his own money.

Yesterday Miss Cann told of her shock at being billed for failing to warn in advance that her father was going to die. She said it was both callous and ridiculous that Highcliffe Nursing Home in Highcliffe, Dorset, was demanding the hefty sum. Miss Cann said: ‘Nobody knows when they are going to die. It’s ridiculous. In effect they are saying that you have to pay 28 days after you have passed away. That is so callous.’ [COLOR=#000000]A grieving daughter has been ordered to pay £3,000 to a nursing home because she did not give a month’s notice of her father’s death. Sue Cann, 54, was told she had incurred the costs because a period of 28 days had to be paid in the event of a resident ‘moving out or passing away’. [B]Read more here--: [URL="http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2104733/Sue-Cann-landed-3k-care-home-failing-notice-fathers-death.html"]Sue Cann landed with £3k care home bill for failing to give notice of father's death [/URL][/B]
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Re: Debt with Disability News Articles

[CENTER][B]Elderly ignored and treated as 'objects' in care system[/B]
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[B]NHS nurses and care workers should sign up to a new code of conduct which guarantees that elderly patients are treated with dignity and respect and not simply treated as 'objects’, a coalition of politicians, regulators and charities declares today. [/B]

Pensioners in the care system are repeatedly being prevented from making up their own minds, denied treatment on the basis of their age, spoken down to and denied their privacy, they warn. The call for the new Dignity Code to prevent abuse is made in a letter to The Daily Telegraph signed by the care minister Paul Burstow and his Labour shadow, Liz Kendall, as well as charities, trades unions and academics. It calls for hospitals, care homes and other institutions to agree a simple set of common standards of care for the first time to prevent cases of abuse and neglect. Care workers could eventually have this new code written into their...[B]Read more here---: [url="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/elderhealth/9096635/Elderly-ignored-and-treated-as-objects-in-care-system.html"]Elderly ignored and treated as 'objects' in care system - Telegraph[/url][/B]

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Re: Debt with Disability News Articles

[CENTER][B]Only the elderly with £100,000 in assets 'should pay for care home fees' argue campaigners ahead of mass rally[/B]
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[LEFT][COLOR=#000000]No family should be forced to dip into their savings to pay for care in old age if their assets fall below £100,000, campaigners will argue today in a mass rally at Parliament. At present, anyone with assets of more than £23,250 has to pay for residential care costs – forcing thousands to sell their homes. Now Age UK is calling for this means-test level to be raised to £100,000, allowing thrifty pensioners to safeguard their homes and pass on more to their children....Read more here--: [B][URL="http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article-2110757/Only-elderly-100-000-assets-pay-care-home-fees-argue-campaigners-ahead-mass-rally.html"]Only-elderly-100-000-assets-pay-care-home-fees-argue-campaigners-ahead-mass-rally.[/URL][/B]

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Re: Debt with Disability News Articles

[CENTER][B]Olympics chief urges City bosses to hire disabled staff.[/B]
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[B]City bosses should be held accountable for the number of disabled staff they recruit as much as they are for their financial performance, according to the chief executive of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. [/B]

Paul Deighton, a former Goldman Sachs partner who heads the London 2012 organising committee (Locog), has called on the banking sector and the City to transform its approach to hiring disabled staff. Mr Deighton said that City employers needed to actively identify disabled candidates they could offer jobs to, rather than relying on traditional recruitment processes. Mr Deighton said Locog had “trawled” for disabled candidates and told them that when the right job came up they would be contacted. As a result 12.5pc of Locog staff hired last month have a disability....[B]Read more here--: [URL="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/9122516/Olympics-chief-urges-City-bosses-to-hire-disabled-staff.html"]Olympics chief urges City bosses to hire disabled staff
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[CENTER][B]1,700 Disabled Workers Face Job Losses [/B][/CENTER]

[B]Remploy is proposing to close 36 of its 54 factories with potential compulsory redundancies of more than 1,700 disabled workers, the Government has announced.[/B]

Minister for disabled people Maria Miller said the Remploy board had put forward plans to close the sites by the end of the year because they were unlikely to achieve independent financial viability. It could lead to almost three-quarters of Remploy's 2,400 employees losing their jobs. [URL="http://www.remploy.co.uk/"][B]Remploy[/B][/URL] is a Government owned company set up after the second World War to provide a sheltered environment for people with disabilities. Over the following decades it established a network of factories across the UK and is now the country's largest specialist employer of disabled people. The firm's first factory to be set up at Bridgend in Wales is among those under threat of closures. Others include Bolton, Bristol, Leeds, Manchester, Poole and Swansea. In a written ministerial statement responding to a Government-commissioned review into disability employment, Ms Miller said savings from policy changes being announced will be used on "proven employment programmes" to benefit "many more" disabled people....Read more [B][URL="http://news.sky.com/home/business/article/16184115"]HERE[/URL][/B]

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[B]Yorkshire care home operator collapses[/B]

A Yorkshire care home operator has collapsed throwing into doubt the future of 80 pensioners. Pennine Care Services, which runs six homes in the region, has fallen into administration after suffering cash flow difficulties. David Whitehouse and Philip Duffy of Duff & Phelps have been appointed joint administrators for the company. Some five staff members out of the operator’s 80-strong workforce have already been made redundant. Managing director Jarnail Bassan explained: “The staff are in turmoil – we are trying to maintain a continued staffing rota. “I am doing my best to make sure the residents are looked after. “If there’s an adverse ending the residents will be....[B]Read more here--: [URL="http://www.insolvencynews.com/article/13622/corporate/yorkshire-care-home-operator-collapses"]Yorkshire care home operator collapses[/URL][/B]

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[CENTER][B][SIZE=3]'Tax on the sick': One in four hospitals increase parking fees - some by up to 200 per cent[/SIZE][/B][/CENTER]

[SIZE=2]More than one in four hospital trusts have increased car parking charges, an NHS survey has found. [/SIZE][SIZE=2]Some hospitals in England have raised charges by up to 200 per cent, with patients and their families and friends paying up to £3.50 an hour. [/SIZE][SIZE=5][SIZE=2]Hospital parking – which is free for most people in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – earns the NHS more than £100million a year.Campaigners condemned the ‘scandalous’ rises as a ‘tax on the sick’ and urged hospitals to follow government guidelines offering concessions to patients with long term illnesses, including cancer[/SIZE]
[SIZE=5][SIZE=2]The figures show 28 per cent of trusts surveyed increased their average hourly parking charge for patients and visitors from last year and only 17 per cent reduced it. [/SIZE][SIZE=2]Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust charged patients 200 per cent more this year, increasing prices from 25p an hour on average to 75p an hour. [/SIZE][SIZE=2]Separate analysis found some trusts charge much more than the national average (77p) for an hour’s hospital parking, based on the average from a three-hour stay.....[B][URL="http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-2115769/Tax-sick-One-hospitals-increase-parking-fees--200-cent.html"]Read more HERE[/URL][/B][/SIZE]

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[CENTER][B]Elderly Suffering 'Disgraceful' Home Care[/B]
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[B]Elderly people are suffering "disgraceful" home care, including missed medication and confinement to soiled beds, an investigation has revealed.[/B]

Undercover researchers for the consumer group Which? reported missed visits, food being put out that was not in reach and vulnerable people being left without a way of getting to the bathroom. Which? asked 30 people or their carers to keep diaries over the course of a week in January detailing their experiences of home care, also known as domiciliary care, by paid workers.
One elderly woman was left alone in the dark for hours unable to find food or drink. Another was left without a walking frame, leaving her unable to get to the bathroom, while one man was not given vital diabetes medication, the group said. Which? declined to name the agencies involved, saying it wants to protect people who gave feedback. One unnamed daughter reported: "They missed a day just after Christmas. They incorrectly entered into their database the days we didn't need care.....[B]Read more here--: [URL="http://news.sky.com/home/business/article/16190039"]Elderly Home Care , Warns Which? Report Sky News[/URL][/B]

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[B]Incapacity tests reject 37% of claimants[/B]

More than a third of incapacity benefit claimants being reassessed for the new Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) have been deemed fit to work. Of the first 141,100 claimants reviewed since last April, 37% would no longer be paid the benefit, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said. Meanwhile 29% will continue being paid the ESA and will not be expected to work. And 34% will receive the new benefit but go on a back-to-work programme.

The controversial reviews started across the UK last April and will eventually cover 1.5 million incapacity benefit claimants by early 2014. Employment Minister Chris Grayling said the official figures justified the government's decision in 2010 to press ahead with the wholesale review of incapacity benefit claimants. These involve the claimants going through the [URL="http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/@disabled/documents/digitalasset/dg_177366.pdf"]work capability assessments [/URL](WCA) that are applied to new applicants.....[B]Read more here---: [URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17379564"]BBC News - Incapacity tests reject 37% of claimants[/URL][/B]

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[CENTER][B]Carers free from tax credit cuts [/B]
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Plans to change tax credit entitlement that would have cost couples with disabled children up to £3,870 a year have been altered. Millions of working low-income families can claim [URL="http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/index.htm"]tax credits[/URL], in addition to some benefits. Changes in April mean couples with children will have to work for 24 hours a week between them, not 16, in order to qualify for working tax credit. However, the government has now made carers exempt from this change.

[B]'Concern' [/B]
From April, the general rule is that couples will have to work at least 24 hours a week, rather than the current threshold of 16 hours, to qualify for working tax credit. One must work for at least 16 hours a week. However, a couple, in which one of the partners is a full-time carer and in receipt of carer's allowance, will be exempt from the change....[B][URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17446884"]Read more HERE[/URL][/B]