Support for elderly at heart of pre-election programme
Support for elderly people in their own homes will feature strongly in the legislative programme before the general election, alongside bills to counter anti-social behaviour, and child poverty.
Details of the widely anticipated bills have been published following the Queen’s Speech today, in which the monarch announces her government’s intentions.
A personal care at home bill will remove the current six week limit on free services for elderly people, giving free care to around 280,000, and preventing 166,000 who currently receive free services from being charged in the future. It is intended as the first step towards a national care service for everyone.
A crime and security bill will introduce a mandatory assessment of parenting needs when a 10-to 15-year-old is given an anti-social behaviour order, place restrictions on storing airguns, and give police the power to bar people suspected of domestic violence from their homes.
The child poverty bill will make the government’s commitment to end child poverty by 2020 legally binding. Various mechanisms will be put in place to monitor progress, and a Child Poverty Commission will be set up to advise government.
A duty will also be placed on local authorities and their partners to tackle child poverty in their area. They will be required to carry out a needs assessment into the scale of the problem, and produce a strategy outlining how they will address this.
An energy bill will be introduced to help the poorest families with their bills. Under this energy companies will be required to offer support to their most vulnerable customers, which at present is offered on a voluntary basis.
The National Housing Federation warned that the bills on support for the elderly and energy must not be ‘missed opportunities’.
Chief executive David Orr said: ‘We welcome the government’s commitment to provide free care for thousands of vulnerable people. But the measures envisaged in this bill quickly need to be broadened out beyond the relatively small number of people with critical needs.’
On the energy bill, he added: ‘The government must go much further and outlaw the long-running prepay meter rip off, through which one million lower income households are charged more for their gas than anyone else.’
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Readers' comments (3)
edward thompson mcnabb | 19/11/2009 1:55 pm
How convenient, that brown,s "bankers party" is showing concern for the elderly and children, now a general election is on the horizon, under multi-millionaire blair & fumbling gordon, both child and pensioner poverty have increased in the 12 years of their non-social conscience rule..
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teddy mcnabb | 19/11/2009 5:27 pm
At a meeting in blackthorn community centre, [NORTHAMPTON] sally keeble m.p told the audience [ mainly comprising of mums] that the government [ her bankers party] is committed to ending child poverty by 2020, [the way they are going it will be all children in poverty] sally also stated that all future governments will be "locked in" to her governments policy, [ gawd help us] im afraid sally of expenses notoriety [ £3000 plus boiler and almost a grand for "essential" bathroom upkeep] is as believable as she was about the weapons of mass destruction [W.M.D,S] WHEN WE GET SHOT OF HER COME THE ELECTIONS SHE CAN SPEND HER TIME LOOKING FOR THEM! I LIKE A MUG VOTED FOR IN PREVIOUS ELECTIONS. The residents of sheltered housing find her yukkish!
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would like to stay anonymous | 20/11/2009 7:31 pm
this may be slightly off the topic above but linked I feel! I have decided to re-name SUPPORTING PEOPLE to SUPPORTING PAPERWORK! the government strategy on supporting people, especially the older population in a way the older population wants is definately not at the heart of SUPPORTING PEOPLE'S agenda! they are obsessed with making the life of those providing the front line support so difficult; they are expected to spend so much time completing paperwork and making statistics look good..surely the point is that any older person can live independantly, happily and healthily??? how many sheets of paper does it take to prove that point?? ANSWER: none!!! get out and visit the customers!!!
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