Forum Topic

Don't Abolish Attendance Allowance

The Government failed to put a cap on care costs but this still seems to be steaming along:https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/attendence-allowance-abolishedAttendance Allowance is used by many to take those taxi rides to places that can no longer be accessed by bus or on foot, it is used to pay for carers and/or for a cleaner (who so often becomes more of a friend and helper) and to visit friends and family who are a long way away.

Philippa Bond ● 3461d6 Comments

Until and unless Health & Social Care is joined up properly and we have better facilities it should be left alone.  It isn't much.It is amazing that someone can be in hospital for months and not be able to have their toenails cut when that would help them to walk properly when the physios try and help them.

Philippa Bond ● 3459d

It should be left be. If it goes to councils then it will no doubt end up meaning more means testing, discrimination and the last thing anyone ailing needs, red tape and impossible to deal with beaurocracy.It's utter misery as it is for the elderly and infirm. One of my friends has been helping several ailing and infirm residents for years and now it's reached his own family. This attendance allowance makes up a small proportion if the huge additional costs of caring and staying at home and thus out of hospitals and care homes.When it takes 3 months for an appointment to get a dementia patient's toenails cut so the patient can at least walk normally, and 24 / 7 carers in  family get no respite with no day centres and growing waiting lists you know something is very wrong.Getting rid of some council officers on unjustifiable six figure salaries would go a long way to restoring what a council ought to be doing.

Raymond Havelock ● 3460d

Sam, will those funds be ring-fenced? If not I fear those who need them won't see any of it. At the moment this allowance IS targeted precisely because you have met certain criteria to be able to receive it, pound to a penny there will be a saving in this.

Vanessa Smith ● 3460d

Correct me if I am wrong but is'nt there simply a consultation on a proposal to transfer the funds currently paid out in attendance allowance to local council's for them to spend in a more targeted way?

Cllr Sam Hearn ● 3460d

Hospital car parks is another big cost!  If the vast amounts of chips and cola that I have recently seen being sold in hospital was taxed it could go towards free hospital parking for visitors!

Philippa Bond ● 3460d

This is appalling - I know my Mum found it so beneficial when she at last was persuaded to claim it when my Dad was ill. It is so surprising what costs mount up when someone is very ill, and I don't think most people appreciate that until unfortunately you find yourself in that position.

Vanessa Smith ● 3461d