Elderly waiting too long for home improvements
Older people are waiting too long for adaptations to their homes, according to politicians in Wales.
A group of assembly members that monitors the work of the Welsh Assembly Government, the Equality of Opportunity Committee, has produced a report on home adaption services for older people in the country.
Committee chair Ann Jones told the assembly: ‘The system of apply for and delivering home adaptation grants across Wales is complex and often inconsistent across different parts of the country or across different types of housing.’
The report, Still Waiting: Home Maintenance and Adaptations Services for Older People in Wales, concludes: ‘Older people deserve to have equal access to timely and appropriate home maintenance and adaptations services, according to need rather than where they live or their housing tenure, in order that they might live their lives independently and with a quality of life. Older people are still waiting too long for adaptations and this is unacceptable.’
It states it is ‘disappointing’ after a review of disabled facilities grants in 2005 that ‘there appears to have been little progress in improving the situation for older people in Wales’.
It notes a fast-track adaptations grant was introduced in affordable housing in Wales in 2008, which allowed adaptations to be carried out without requiring approval from the Welsh government, meaning work could be carried out promptly.
The report makes 15 recommendations, including reporting annually to the Equality of Opportunity Committee on progress made after the 2005 review and developing and co-ordinating a programme of evaluation to find out what works well to provide revised guidance to local authorities.
In a response to the report, deputy housing minister Jocelyn Davies said: ‘Whilst much has been achieved in these policy areas the committee has rightly highlighted a number of imperfections and systemic weaknesses that are prevalent in the current administrative and funding arrangements for home adaptations. We will strive to remedy and eliminate these and other shortcomings the committee describes.’
She explained she had commissioned a strategy on home maintenance and adaptations services, which was due to be finished soon, and the assembly would be working closely with the Welsh Local Government Association and partner organisations to achieve the goals set out by the committee.
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Readers' comments (4)
Harry Lime | 30/11/2009 10:02 am
I have mixed feelings about adaptations to privately owned properties, people who own their property outright, but have no funds themselves should enter into equity agreements whereby the cost is refunded to the state upon their death. The main stumbling block with this is too often, the heirs to the properties aren't too keen on seeing their "inheritance" used in such a way, instead preferring to see their mum or dad suffer, and infer that they believe that "the state" should pay for the adaptations, which the state should if there is no alternative. If this way of working was enforced then those who have no recourse to other methods of payment should see their adaptations done far quicker.
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Melvin Bone | 30/11/2009 12:15 pm
'Harry Lime : I have mixed feelings about adaptations to privately owned properties'
These sort of schemes were meant to be universal for the people who qualified for a need. You cannot go about messing about with the qualifying criteria just because it does not fit your political agenda.
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Harry Lime | 30/11/2009 1:12 pm
I can state whatever I like Melvin, it's all about opinions isn't it? I find it somewhat perverse when someone can own outright a property worth £100k+ and yet the thought that they might pay for their own requirements is challenged It should be reiterated that it would be their estate that pays, not the people themselves during their lifetime. Rather like some of your right wing leanings about flexible tenure and the like might not be to everyone elses tastes - after all the qualifying criteria for them is in place so that would make any of your thoughts on the topic irrelevant??
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Melvin Bone | 30/11/2009 3:42 pm
Yes Harry. You can state whatever you like.
I'm just not sure you should propose to provide people what they need now and get them to pay after death. It does sound a little like something from Soylent Green.
That is my opinion...
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