Patrick Butler

1 week ago | aol.co.uk | Patrick Butler |Kiran Stacey

The government has been accused of “delay and drift” after it emerged crucial cross-party talks aimed at building political consensus for large-scale changes to adult social care have failed to get off the ground. The Liberal Democrats said not a single all-party meeting on the issue had taken place in the four months since the government announced ambitious plans to build a national care service to fix the UK’s growing social care crisis.

1 week ago | theguardian.com | Patrick Butler

Ministers have announced an overhaul of the way carer’s allowance overpayments are checked in a bid to fix the failing system which has left thousands with life-changing debts,fines and criminal records. In a significant policy change, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been ordered to hire extra staff to investigate 100% of the carer’s allowance earnings breach alerts it receives and swiftly notify carers if they are at risk of falling into debt.

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Patrick Butler

Hundreds of thousands of seriously ill and disabled people will become “invisible” and cut adrift from local support services as a result of the government’s £5bn programme of disability benefit cuts, experts have warned. Claimants who do not qualify for personal independence payment (Pip) or incapacity benefits would lose a “marker of need” with local councils and NHS bodies, making it “nearly impossible” for them to access help, said the consultancy Policy in Practice.

3 weeks ago | msn.com | Patrick Butler |Pamela Duncan |Matthew Pearce |Raphael Boyd

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3 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Patrick Butler |Pamela Duncan |Matthew Pearce |Raphael Boyd

Nearly 20 councils have warned publicly that they are at risk of insolvency because of multibillion pound debts caused by years of overspends on special educational needs support, the Guardian can reveal. Overspending on special educational needs and disability (Send) services in England is forecast to grow by nearly £2bn over the next 12 months, a Guardian investigation shows.