Search results for ‘Subject term:"older people"’ Sort:
Results 1 - 10 of 25
Benefit take-up and older people
- Author:
- AGE UK
- Publisher:
- Age UK
- Publication year:
- 2021
- Pagination:
- 10
- Place of publication:
- London
This paper sets out the latest figures on older people’s benefit take-up, looks at reasons for non-take up, and ways to address this problem. Key points; nearly a million pensioner households are entitled to, but not receiving, Pension Credit and 200,000 households are missing out on help with rent through Housing Benefit. In a single year £2.2 billion of these two benefits goes unclaimed; there are a range of inter-related reasons why people do not claim their entitlements including lack of awareness, an assumption that they would not be entitled to help, a concern that the process will be complicated, a reluctance to provide personal information, and negative attitudes about receiving benefits or asking for help; people may claim support after a change in circumstances or due to encouragement from friends, family, professionals, or advice organisations; ongoing publicity is needed, but it is also important that information is taken out to places where people are and that those in contact with older people, such as trusted health professionals, help identify those in need, encourage them to check entitlements, and refer them to appropriate support; information and advice services need the resources to provide benefit checks and to give people practical help with the process of claiming where necessary; the Government should do more to ensure that people receive their entitlements through ongoing national publicity and by exploring ways to improve the systems; ideally people would not need to rely on means-tested benefits to top up their income. However, currently they provide vital support for nearly a quarter of pensioner households, and more needs to be done to reach those who are missing out on support due. (Edited publisher abstract)
Measuring social protection for long-term care
- Author:
- MUIR Tim
- Publisher:
- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
- Publication year:
- 2017
- Pagination:
- 57
- Place of publication:
- Paris
This report presents the first international quantification and comparison of levels of social protection for long-term care (LTC) in 14 OECD and EU countries. Focusing on five scenarios with different LTC needs and services, it quantifies the cost of care; the level of coverage provided by social protection systems; the out-of-pocket costs that people are left facing; and whether these costs are affordable. The cost of care varies widely between countries but it is always high relative to typical incomes, meaning that LTC is often unaffordable in the absence of social protection. All countries studied have some form of social protection for LTC, but even where coverage is comprehensive, people pay some of the cost out of pocket. Coverage for home care for moderate or severe needs is often insufficient, leaving people with large out-of-pocket costs. In contrast, all countries studied ensure that institutional care is affordable. Unless family and friends can provide informal care, many people will be unable to afford LTC in their own home, leaving them with unmet needs or at risk of early institutionalisation. Benefits are usually means-tested to provide more support to those less able to afford to contribute, but it is still those with lowest incomes that are most likely to face unaffordable costs. Some countries provide financial support to informal carers, but this rarely comes close to compensating them for the time they spend providing LTC. When designing social protection systems for LTC, countries need to look systematically at the level of protection provided to people in different scenarios. Many countries aim to support people with LTC needs to remain in their own home for longer, but the results presented here suggest that gaps in social protection make this unaffordable for people with low income. Addressing these gaps should be a priority for future reforms. (Edited publisher abstract)
Dependency care in the EU: a comparative analysis
- Author:
- KAMETTE Florence
- Publisher:
- Fondation Robert Schuman
- Publication year:
- 2011
- Pagination:
- 9p.
- Place of publication:
- Paris
The ageing population together with the collapse of family solidarity means that managing old age dependency is a problem common to all European countries. In France, reform of the ‘personalised autonomy allowance’ (APA) currently being paid to the dependent elderly is under debate. This policy paper analyses the way that 6 European Member States address the problem of old age dependency to provide an illustration of various possible solutions. These 6 countries, Germany, England, Denmark, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands have been selected because their social protection systems are inspired differently and offer more or less generous types of cover. Germany and Spain have introduced specific, all-encompassing measures to manage dependency, unlike Denmark where local social security payments have gradually developed to cope with the requirements of an ageing population. England, Italy and the Netherlands distinguish between care and other services which are required by increasingly dependent people, the former depend on the healthcare system and the latter are provided for by the local authorities.
Elderly bias, new social risks and social spending: change and timing in eight programmes across four worlds of welfare, 1980-2003
- Authors:
- TEPE Markus, VANHUYSSE PIETER
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of European Social Policy, 20(3), July 2010, pp.217-234.
- Publisher:
- Sage
Over the past decades, all affluent welfare states have been coping with two major new trends: population ageing and new social risks resulting from de-industrialisation. This article aims to investigate how these demand-side trends, and their timing, have affected welfare spending. The study investigates up to 21 OECD democracies with respect to 8 separate programmes and 2 composite indicators of aggregate welfare spending bias towards the elderly and new social risks. It finds that welfare regime logics still matter crucially in accounting for variation between countries, as does the timing of the large-scale arrival of new social risks. Both Southern European welfare states and countries that entered the post-industrial society comparatively late spend less on programmes such as education and family allowances, and more on survivor pensions. However within countries, contemporaneous levels of new social risks conspicuously fail to affect spending on programmes that deal with these risks. These findings defy simple neo-pluralist expectations of social policy responsiveness: on their own, even dramatic demand-side trends influence welfare spending relatively little in advanced democracies.
The impact of the use of the social welfare services or social security benefits on attitudes to social welfare policies
- Author:
- MUURI Anu
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Social Welfare, 19(2), April 2010, pp.182-193.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
This article investigates the attitudes of citizens and clients to social welfare services and social security benefits in Finland. The article starts by overviewing the previous welfare-state studies relating especially to the theoretical perspectives of self-interest and legitimacy. This is followed by empirical analysis of data from a Finnish national survey entitled ‘Welfare and Services in Finland’ conducted at the end of 2006, measuring responses to questions on attitudes to social welfare services and to social security benefits. This results indicated: that a different operation of self-interest can only weakly explain the differences in attitudes between services and benefits; that there is general support for Finnish social welfare services and social security benefits, which, however, is mixed with growing criticism among women and pensioners who are supposed to benefit most from the welfare policies; and that such determinants of attitude as gender, use and, to some extent, lifecycle have become as important as class-related factors such as income and education.
Social security: how Singapore does it
- Authors:
- CHOON Aw Tar, LOW Linda
- Journal article citation:
- Asia Pacific Journal of Social Work, 6(1), March 1996, pp.97-119.
- Publisher:
- Times Academic
Singapore's social security system through its Central Provident Fund (CPF) has gone beyond old age provisions. A British legacy, this fully funded CPF scheme has been refined into an all-purpose package for home ownership, medical, local tertiary education and asset ownership. It has become a life-long provision through a portfolio of continuous managed investment.
Social welfare in Latin America
- Editors:
- DIXON John, SCHEURELL Robert
- Publisher:
- Routledge
- Publication year:
- 1990
- Pagination:
- 217p.,bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- London
Contains chapters on: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Uruguay.
An international comparison of health, social care and welfare legislation and its effects on older British nationals' mobility within the European Union: final report
- Authors:
- COLDRON Keleigh, O'BRIEN Charlotte
- Publisher:
- Age Concern England; Royal British Legion
- Publication year:
- 2008
- Pagination:
- 56p., bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- London
The purpose of this study was to examine the rights to statutory health, social care and welfare provision that are lost on migrating from the UK. In order to do this the health, welfare and social care benefits and services available for older British nationals within the United Kingdom, Portugal, France, Germany and Cyprus are defined and compared. The report also investigated whether retirement migrants are specifically disadvantaged or other migrants are equally disadvantaged. Section 2 outlines the 'losses' retirement migrants would face should they move to another state. Section 3 revealed gaps in the statutory services available to older British nationals should they move to one of the member states in the study. One of the conclusions in the report is that if individuals are heavily dependent on social care services to live their lives in the UK, it may not be a wise move to move to another Member State.
The challenge of intra-Union and in-migration to 'social Europe'
- Author:
- WARNES Anthony M.
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 28(1), January 2002, pp.135-152.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
Examines with particular reference to international migrants the contradictions between rhetoric and reality in eligibility to and the availability of health and welfare entitlements across the European Union. On the hand, the Brussels Commissions laud the existence of a 'social Europe', which should exist as a logical extension of the promotion of the free movement of labour. On the other hand, the member states will not cede control of social spending and specifically social security administration. Migrants within and into the EU continue to face 'structured disadvantage' in income protection and accessibility to health and social care, especially when retired or sick, frail or disabled. Concludes with recommendations for the advocacy organisations that seek to end this structured disadvantage about the most likely ways in which policies can be changed.
A decent proposal
- Author:
- FIELD Frank
- Journal article citation:
- Community Care, 27.3.97, 1997, p.17.
- Publisher:
- Reed Business Information
Examines the pros and cons of the Social Security Secretary's proposals for state pensions and argues they have an important contribution to make to the debate about the future funding of welfare.