Direct payment users treasure their relationships with their personal assistants, but can feel uncomfortable on pay day
By Jennifer HarveyService user choice is a fine thing but leads to dilemmas when those choices put too much pressure on other, already concerned, family members, as Jennifer Harvey relates from her own recent experience
By Steve Arthington
Amid talk of choice and freedom, service users must remember they also gain more responsibility under personalised services
By Simon Heng
by Allan Norman
I had more sympathy for the arguments of Mr Casewell than I expected to. His wife had a disability and received direct payments. She paid them to him as her carer. They were on benefits. He argued that as direct payments were disregarded as income, he should effectively be entitled to keep the direct payments on top of their benefits. His case went to the Court of Appeal .
by Andrew Holman
Listening to the BBC news over the weekend I was left wondering what our care services Minister Ivan Lewis was up to. And more importantly whether he would be moving on from his job.
by Stephen Burke
Employers and government could do much more to support the growing number of carers who work and want to work. Carers should be given the same rights at work as parents – particularly by extending tax breaks for childcare vouchers to care vouchers.
