Benefits.

[geoffrey]

A lovely lady aged 65 who has trouble with walking lives in a village where there is now no shop or post office or bus service, She is on a basic state pension plus pension credit. She is suffering severe social exclusion as the only transport out of her village is a taxi and that is far too expensive. She has however been told that because she can look after herself and is aged over 60 she is entitled to no mobility rights and no extra financial assistance. Yet a 55 year old friend of hers is provided with a free new car every three years and extra financial help. Surely there is something wrong here or does the state actually permit such age discrimination?

[buds68]

Re: Benefits.

A lovely lady aged 65 who has trouble with walking lives in a village where there is now no shop or post office or bus service, She is on a basic state pension plus pension credit. She is suffering severe social exclusion as the only transport out of her village is a taxi and that is far too expensive. She has however been told that because she can look after herself and is aged over 60 she is entitled to no mobility rights and no extra financial assistance. Yet a 55 year old friend of hers is provided with a free new car every three years and extra financial help. Surely there is something wrong here or does the state actually permit such age discrimination?

Dont know what the benefit system is coming to ! Infuriates me,When you see young girls aged 15/16 popping children out knowing they have no means to support them an get all the help financially from the benefits system !!!! Then there is people like the lady mentioned above whom probably paid in to the system !FGS this lady should be given help in getting around so she can enjoy the rest of her life ! Has she tried her local Council ?

[jon1965]

Re: Benefits.

If she had applied for DLA before the 65 maybe she would have got the mobility component of DLA.
If she is unable to mobilise then maybe there is a case for lower rate AA
https://www.gov.uk/attendance-allowance/eligibility

Remember what we may consider looking after herself may not be what the state considers right.
How bad is her mobility?

Another suggestion is her local age concern or even her Church (for the record i am very anti organised religion but some churches have great people involved in them)

[geoffrey]

Re: Benefits.

The good lady, who can walk around her house and small garden but not much further, discovered Age Concern. They were very helpful but told her that because of her age she has no mobility rights at all and therefore no benefits apart from her Pension Credit and Council Tax benefit. It is absolutely shocking. She cannot even attend some medical, dental and opticians appointments and has to stock up on tinned and dried food during her monthly visit to the shops.

[IsItRequired]

Re: Benefits.

http://www.redcross.org.uk/What-we-d...pendent-living

Have you tried these guys? or your local NHS CCG might be able to help?...I dont know if they can but its worth a phone call.

[IsItRequired]

Re: Benefits.

http://www.turn2us.org.uk/grants_search.aspx
This site maybe of some use,its not just grants even though a grant would help?
I have seen Grants for this that and everything in there lists...it is shocking...some just for family members of the grant giving organisation for anything they like...The whole site lists so many good for all organisations aswell that I am sure somewhere there , will be able to help.

[enaid]

Re: Benefits.

Sad situation and it was reported that a lot of rural transport was to get even further cuts in finance making things worse.
Community Transport is probably therefore going to be on the increase and more accessible some info on here http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/englan...ransport_e.htm

Perhaps if your friend has neighbours or any kind of community centre where she lives they could get together and maybe start their own self help transport system. I know this is not the ideal solution but fear things like this will get worse with the cut backs so the more we help ourselves the better it will be for a lot of us imo.
Enaid xx and Good Luck x