Friday 21 November 2008

Welfare plan 'may cause poverty'

Ministers should rethink or delay plans to force lone parents, disabled people and the long-term jobless to seek work, a senior government adviser has said.

Sir Richard Tilt said reforms in Wales, England and Scotland could "push people into poverty" as unemployment rises.

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‘Astronomical’ childcare costs prevent parents from working

Crippling childcare costs are preventing increasing numbers of parents from entering and re-entering the workforce, according to a new survey.

More than four out of five parents who responded to the survey by parenting club Bounty said they felt prevented from working because of childcare costs.

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Thursday 20 November 2008

Hearing at the cutting edge

It is estimated that almost 9m people in the UK have some sort of hearing loss. There is no shortage of technology that promises to correct - partially or in full - a particular problem. But how can people be sure that what they are buying really can do "what it says on the tin"?

This was the subject of a recent "show and tell" session held by the Royal National Institute for Deaf people (RNID) in London.

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The latest advance in medical care: mobile phones

Mobile phones have been regarded as potential health hazards almost since they were invented. Now they are being used to improve the lives of thousands of Britons with chronic diseases such as diabetes and asthma.

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New target for test waiting times

Patients waiting for key diagnostic tests including MRI and CT scans will have shorter waiting times from next year, the health secretary has pledged.

Nicola Sturgeon said the current nine-week maximum waiting time would be cut to six weeks by the end of March.

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A new leaf: Why businesses need to invest in disabled employees

More and more organisations are learning to get the best out of disabled employees by being more flexible.

When Paul Burrows suffered from hearing loss back in 1994, he lost the ability to understand consonants, which makes speech very hard to follow. "If you take a sentence like 'the cat sat on the mat' and take all the consonants out, that's what I hear," he explains. Later, Burrows was diagnosed with ME and fibromyalgia, making it even more difficult to concentrate on what people are saying. It was at this point that Burrows, who is a social worker, was told by a nurse that he'd have to give up work.

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'Pioneering service' launched for deaf people

A mental health service for deaf people in the Lothians, the first in Scotland, has been welcomed by ministers and charities.

It comes following feedback from the area's deaf community that there wasn't enough support away from the everyday practical problems they faced.

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