Search results for ‘Subject term:"older people"’ Sort:
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Alarm over allowances
- Author:
- HUNTER Mark
- Journal article citation:
- Community Care, 17.9.09, 2009, pp.26-27.
- Publisher:
- Reed Business Information
Government proposals in the green paper 'Shaping the future of care together' have presented a risk that the attendance allowance could be integrated into the general social care system. This article reports on the opposition from disability user groups who believe the attendance allowance should remain a separate non-means tested benefit. A short case study showing the benefits the allowance provided one woman with a visual impairment is included.
International policy perspectives on independence in old age
- Author:
- PLATH Debbie
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Aging and Social Policy, 21(2), April 2009, pp.209-223.
- Publisher:
- Routledge
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
Although the promotion of independence is a common feature of policies on older people across the world, independence has a variety of meanings that are shaped by different social, political and economic contexts and by different values and attitudes towards older people. This study compares policies in Australia, Denmark, India and the UK. In Australia and the UK, liberal democratic values translate into support for individual independence in old age. In Denmark, a strong emphasis on social responsibility and the right to public services means that choice, rather than independence, for older people is the prime focus. In India, independence is of less significance in the context of economic constraints and strong social values supporting family responsibility for the care of older people. This analysis raises important questions about the promotion of independence as a goal in the aging policies of international bodies such as the UN and WHO.
HM Revenue and Customs: dealing with the tax obligations of older people: report by the Comptroller and Auditor General
- Author:
- NATIONAL AUDIT OFFICE
- Publisher:
- Stationery Office
- Publication year:
- 2009
- Pagination:
- 30p.
- Place of publication:
- London
Older people, defined as people of the State Pension age, are a significant and growing group for HM Revenue and Customs, representing 18% of taxpayers. In 2007, for the first time in the UK, there were more people in this age group than children, with the number expecting to increase to 23% by 2031. As these numbers increase, the Departments cost in helping them comply is likely to increase when its budget is decreasing. Considering how it can improve the service to older people, the government has produced strategies for meeting the challenges presented by an ageing society, to bring together action from various parts of government to tackle pensioner poverty and ensure the country adapts. This report examines: Income Tax obligations for older people; their compliance record; how change in circumstance affects their tax obligations; and the department’s approach to providing help. In summary, whilst older people appear to have a better record of compliance, they are disproportionately affected by errors – a significant number over or underpay tax, and fail to claim for the allowances these people are entitled to.
Identifying a fairer system for funding adult social care
- Authors:
- KEEN Justin, BELL David
- Publisher:
- Joseph Rowntree Foundation
- Publication year:
- 2009
- Pagination:
- 11p., bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- York
This briefing sets out a framework for identifying a fairer system of adult social care. It discusses five key questions that form a framework for identifying a fairer system. What is the scope of the reform programme? What is to be distributed? What distributive principle should be used? What are the priorities? and Who are the loosers in the care lottery? It then uses these questions evaluate the Green Paper Shaping the future of care together. This analysis shows that the Paper represents an advance on previous government statements on adult social care, but lacks important detail, particularly on funding options.
Empowering engagement: a stronger voice for older people: the government response to John Elbourne's review
- Author:
- GREAT BRITAIN. Department for Work and Pensions
- Publisher:
- Great Britain. Department for Work and Pensions
- Publication year:
- 2009
- Pagination:
- 48p.
- Place of publication:
- London
Older people are to have a bigger say in developing central, regional and local Government policies announced Rt Hon Rosie Winterton, Minister for Pensions and the Ageing Society today, in response to John Elbourne’s review of older people’s engagement with Government. A new national UK Advisory Forum on Ageing will give older people a direct line to Government to comment on new policy ideas, services, legislation and what areas they feel the Government needs to address
Older people's wellbeing monitor for Wales 2009
- Author:
- WALES. Welsh Assembly Government
- Publisher:
- Wales. Welsh Assembly Government
- Publication year:
- 2009
- Pagination:
- 228p.
- Place of publication:
- Cardiff
The purpose of this report is to monitor the well-being of older people (aged 50 and over) in Wales in 2009, and to enable the Welsh Assembly Government and its partners to monitor and respond to key trends as well as raising awareness of issues that need to be tackled. It reports key published data, based on an evidence review by Cardiff University, and the 'Voices of older people in Wales' qualitative study. The monitor sets out key policies relating to older people in Wales, provides a demographic overview of older people (finding that of the UK countries, Wales has the highest proportion of people of state pensionable age), and looks in detail at specific groups, dignity and social inclusion, independence and material wellbeing, participation, health and care, and self-fulfilment and active ageing. Each chapter highlights key findings and identifies any significant evidence gaps. The well-being indicators reported are based on the UN Principles of Older Persons and the Welsh Assembly Government's Strategy for Older People in Wales Indicators of Change.
My year as National Dignity Ambassador
- Author:
- PARKINSON Michael
- Publisher:
- DH Care Networks. Dignity in Care
- Publication year:
- 2009
- Pagination:
- 38p.
- Place of publication:
- London
This report is a personal testimony from Michael Parkinson of his first year as the National Dignity Ambassador, a figurehead for the Government’s Dignity in Care Campaign. His role is to help raise awareness of the campaign and to provide a focus for publicity to bring the campaign to the attention of the public. The aim is to ensure dignified care for all by getting staff and the public to talk about what dignity in care actually means and inspiring everyone involved to take action. The report describes the visits he has made, the people he has met, and the stories he has heard, both good and bad, over the course of the year. He ends the report with an appeal for the Government, the media, and organisations that represent the public, patients, staff and care providers to continue to work to get across the message ‘Dignity for all’.
Voice of older people: annual report 2008-09
- Author:
- BAKEWELL Joan
- Publisher:
- Great Britain. Government Equalities Office
- Publication year:
- 2009
- Pagination:
- 31p.
- Place of publication:
- London
This report is written by Joan Bakewell in her capacity as the Government’s Voice of Older People. It is an informal report, setting out the most important issues that have reached her in her year in the position, her response to them, and the ways that the Government is moving to improve the situation. The issues that she has been contacted about most are: domiciliary care; council tax and local government including the closure of public toilets; modern technology; the NHS’s treatment of the elderly and end of life care; retirement age; pensions for both UK residents and expatriates; and sheltered housing and care homes. Joan describes how, using her experience as a journalist and broadcaster, she has been raising awareness of these issues. The report also provides information on Government initiatives to improve the lives of older people including the Equality Bill and the Building a Society for All Ages strategy.
The 'consumer principle' in the care of elderly people: free choice and actual choice in the German welfare state
- Authors:
- EICHLER Melanie, PFAU-EFFINGER Birgit
- Journal article citation:
- Social Policy and Administration, 43(6), December 2009, pp.617-633.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
In the mid-1990s the German welfare state introduced care markets and consumer choice between family care and different types of formal care, together with new long-term care legislation. This article examines care policy and the expansion of choice in Germany with the introduction of the Long-Term Care Insurance Act, and development of the structure of care of elderly people, showing how the actual decision on the part of those in need of care and their family members has developed, and looks at possible explanatory factors for why those in need of care and their family members continue to choose the traditional solution of care by family members despite the expansion of possibilities, arguing that cultural factors contribute significantly to this. The authors find that elderly people and their families orient their behaviour towards traditional care values in which the first priority is given to mutual support between spouses and generations, and that elderly people and care agencies have substantially different definitions of a good quality of care.
Developing services for people with dementia
- Authors:
- McDONALD Ann, HEATH Becky
- Journal article citation:
- Working with Older People, 13(3), September 2009, pp.18-21.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
The authors describe a study carried out in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, funded by the Department of Health, examining services across the statutory, voluntary and private sectors and exploring how national policy was being interpreted to meet local need. The research looked at how agencies make sense of and apply national guidance on services for people with dementia, the map of services across the region and the extent to which this represents partnership within a mixed economy of care, any examples of innovative practice that can be presented for wider dissemination, and problems and gaps in service provision identified by strategic managers, frontline managers and practitioners, and by service users and carers. The findings were that services for older people with dementia are underdeveloped compared to those for older people generally, but that there is the potential to develop community-based and inclusive services for people who have dementia.