It may still be raining, but as least it’s warmer rain than last month!! There has been a lot of movement on the ‘Benefits front’ recently, so we have focused on some of this in our Spring edition.

In many cases you now have the right to take time off work to deal with an emergency involving someone who depends on you. You can’t be penalised by your employer for taking the time off, providing your reasons for taking it are genuine.

Your husband, wife or partner, child or parent, or someone living with you as part of your family can all be considered as depending on you. Others who rely on you in an emergency may also qualify.

The Department of Trade and Industry’s leaflet Family Emergency only gives basic guidance and shouldn’t be taken as an authoritative statement of the law.

Connexions is a new service which will provide information, guidance, referral and support for all young people aged 13-19 in England to encourage them to make the most of their educational opportunities.

Using personal advisors inside and outside schools, Connexions will bring together different agencies to help young people to stay in learning after 16 and to support their transition to young adulthood.

The service will support all young people, but will give priority to those who are at risk of dropping out of the system, and clearly this must include young carers. The service will be phased in from April 2001.

Trained advice workers offer free, confidential, impartial advice and information about:

Support for carers

Welfare and disability benefits

Community and residential care

Housing options and adaptations

Access to health and community services

Equipment to assist independence

Agencies offering local practical help

Seniorline is open on weekdays from 9am-4pm and is available throughout the UK. All calls are free of charge on 0808 800 6565

There is one credit per family, which is available to married or unmarried couples and single parents with children under 16 where the main earner’s income is up to around £40,000 a year.

Parents who pay tax via the PAYE system should complete and return an application form as soon as possible. They will be given a new tax code which will reduce the amount of tax that they pay each month, so they should notice a difference in their pay packets!

At the moment, only working age women can claim widows’ benefit

However the government is bringing in a new system of bereavement benefits for widows and widowers

There will be three bereavement benefits that will replace the current widows’ benefits:

Bereavement Payment

Widowed Parent’s Allowance

Bereavement Allowance

A report by the Joseph Rowntree Trust looked into the affects caring can have on childhood.

Growing Up Caring is based on interviews with 60 carers aged 16-25. It found that many young people who spend time caring struggle to get a job when the time comes because they have missed school. Many had gained practical skills useful for independence and adulthood, but such skills were outweighed by a lack of social and employment opportunities.

Half the carers had missed some school, a quarter had no GCSE qualifications and only a quarter had paid jobs. Those in further education found their caring roles made it hard for them to get part time jobs.

FRIDGESAVERS is an energy-efficient initiative to enable people in receipt of benefits to reduce their fuel bills by replacing fridges and fridge-freezers, which use too much electricity, with brand new energy-efficient models.

The project is being funded by SWEB and is managed by Lothian and Edinburgh Environmental Partnership. To qualify, the applicant must own a standard sized fridge with an icebox, or a fridge freezer. Separate freezers, or fridges without a freezing compartment do not qualify to be replaced under the scheme.

...then you need to obtain the DSS Pensioner’s Guide. In conjunction with Age Concern, Help the Aged and the Local Government Association, the guide gives general advice on Money and tax, Health and Social Services, Travel and Leisure, Legal Services and what to do when you lose a loved one.

There is all sorts of help out there - it’s a question of knowing where to find it!

In our last edition of News & Views we ran an article on the mis-selling of personal pensions giving a phone number for further information.

The Ivybridge Information and Support Centre is open every Tuesday from 10 am to 12.30 pm at Chapel Place Community Centre, Fore Street.

It is manned by volunteers, (carers or former carers themselves) who will listen sympathetically, and often from their own experiences point a new carer to where help is available from the statutory or voluntary sectors.

Nightlink is the out of hours telephone support service, currently run by Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly Health Authority, for people involved with mental health. The service ensures that it maintains performance standards including:-

Treating people in a supportive and compassionate way

Answering the telephone within 30 seconds

Providing balanced, accurate and up-to-date information on mental health issues when necessary

Totnes Carers Group have re-started their gentle exercise and relaxation classes, on a different day and at a different venue, in the hope that this will enable more carers to attend.

They now meet on Friday afternoon at 4pm at Leatside Surgery, Babbage Road, Totnes in the large heath visitor suite. The class lasts approximately 11/2 hours, including tea and chat, at the very reasonable cost of £1.50 per session.

Following the very successful inaugural meeting on the 4th April, the green light has been given for a carers support group to be set up in the village of Wembury.

As with previous carers groups, it is intended that the new group will be informal and completely independent—run by carers themselves, with the help of any former carers or other local residents who would like to become involved.

They intend to meet in the future on the second Wednesday of every month at the Church Room, Ford Road, Wembury. The next meeting is scheduled for 9th May, at 2.30 pm.

…Tender Loving Carers are a friendly carers’ support group that meet on the third Monday of every month.

They have a varied programme of guest speakers and arrange outings and visits. Their next guest speaker is Cheryl Bawden, from the Benefits Agency, on May 21st.

They meet at St John’s Ambulance, Totnes Road, Paignton which is next door to the Honda Garage.

The Children Act 1989 recognises that it is important to know exactly how many children in Torbay have disabilities. The Children’s Disability Register is designed for this purpose. Torbay Social Services, together with South Devon Healthcare, want to make sure that as many eligible children are included as possible.

Children and young people up to the age of 18 can be included on the register whose disability might fall into one of the following categories

Seeing

Hearing

Communication

Mental health

Moving around

Learning

Physical health

All information held is confidential and will only be available to professionals working in Health and Social Services Departments.

Anyone in Torbay can use the service who

is caring for someone with a disability

has a disability

is caring for a child with a disability

are family or friends of a disabled person

work in the social or health care sectors

The way forward for the Torbay Mental Health Forum is now to find a body of service users and carers to form an executive committee, for the possibility of registering the Forum as a charity.

It aims to become more proactive, thus gaining credibility amongst carers, users and the Mental Health Services.

Torbay Social Services has reached agreement with 18 residential homes in Torbay to operate a short breaks voucher scheme.

Following the usual assessment, instead of the Care Manager arranging the break, the user will be issued with a number of vouchers (a voucher represents 1 night of residential break) which are valid for up to a year.

The scheme will operate as a pilot during 2001-2002 and detailed information will be made available to Care Management Staff, users, carers, and the participating homes by the end of April.