June 9th: Frail lady is victim of the hard sell
The council is over-eager to give carers/disabled their own budget.
Two weeks ago, a frail lady in her 80s, looking after her husband in a wheelchair, asked her council care providers if the care worker could come in earlier than usual so she could leave him to go for an early morning hospital appointment.
The answer she got was shocking: "Why don't you go on to the direct payment scheme then you can organise your own care to suit your requirements".
This lady is not in the best of health and is looking after someone with a physical and dementia disability, and on top of this the council wants her to take charge of a separate budget (and paperwork), advertise, interview and take on the responsibilities of an employer on top of the exhausting role of being a carer of her disabled partner.
She only wanted a little help and flexibility for just that one morning and instead she got the "hard sell" for direct payments.
Rosemary Bromwich says this new method is to get away from a "one size fits all" approach to care, but that is precisely what she is doing.
Direct payments may well be a good thing for those with the intellect and/or family support to manage DIY care, but the drive is to get everyone on this scheme within the next 18 months.
Eventually the councils' care service infrastructure will disappear into the sunset along with the continuity of care and the important lifeline it offered to both disabled people and carers.
Chris Kinsey,
Carlow Street, Ringstead.
We don't need another supremo
What a ridiculous state of affairs, that the council is to appoint a director of planning on 100,00 a year, this at a time when they are putting up council taxes every year, and now we have to pay for another executive figure.
This position could be filled quite easily at a much lower figure.
Virtually everyone in this borough knows what needs to be done.
We do not need another "god" to tell us we are wrong and ignore the views of the people.
Plus, whoever is appointed will have to fight all the bodies involved: West Northamptonshire Development Corporation, the borough council, Daventry District Council, the county council and South Northants District Council.
When there are so many different bodies involved in our planning, it does not matter who is appointed.
Nothing will happen for years. This is the reason why places like Milton Keynes always get ahead of us.
Doug Buckle,
Kentstone Close, Northampton.
Why is pension being taxed?
I became eligible and started to draw my state pension last November at 60, and qualify for a full single pension as I am divorced, but was recently informed by my tax office that I am being taxed on it.
This means that I am having to work part-time in order to pay the tax on my pension, otherwise, I was told I would have to complete a tax return form and be sent a tax demand to pay the tax due on my state pension, reducing my income.
I have worked for the majority of my adult life, paying tax and national insurance and now find that I will have to continue to pay tax on my state pension until I reach the age of 65 when the tax allowance goes up.
I don't know of any other state benefit which is taxable, so why is state pension?
Surely this is something else that should be looked into as well as the end of 10p tax, which of course means that I am being taxed at the higher rate tax.
It would be helpf
ul if someone could perhaps look into and take on the challenge for me to try to keep all of my state pension, which is not a tremendous amount to live on.
I thought that as I got older and reached retirement, life would become less complicated, but it would seem that is not the case.
Jan Slucock (Mrs),
Grovebury Dell, Kingsthorpe, Northampton.
Non-political
Mr Johns (Viewpoint, June 5) attacks the Lib Dems on the decision of the council's planning committee to approve an application for the disused toilets in Hunsbury Country Park to be converted into a small cafe.
Northampton Borough Council's planning committee does not operate on a party political basis.
The decision of the committee (as reported elsewhere in the paper) was taken by nine votes to one at a public meeting.
The nine in favour of the application consisted of Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat members of that committee.
The only councillor voting against being the Lib Dem ward councillor, Paul Varnsverry.
Richard Church,
Portfolio holder for Regeneration, Northampton Borough Council.
Staff crisis at county libraries
As a regular user of the library services I am alarmed at the changes announced recently by the Northamptonshire County Council (NCC).
As part of a cut in the library budget of 595,000 in this year's budget, six full time librarian posts have been eliminated at the Northampton Central Library.
Simultaneously, library hours have been extended but with fewer staff available to serve the public.
The recent introduction of a self-service system, meant to reduce the need for staff, has overlooked the fact that other services, including requests for information or assistance on a homework assignment, are not met by self-service.
To paper over the staff shortages, all library assistants have been made to sign new contracts requiring them to work at any library and on Saturdays, which will result in chasing around from one library to another to keep libraries open for longer hours.
Compounding this situation is that at some libraries, including Far Cotton and Abington, a lone working policy has been introduced at certain times of the day, despite the fact that staff in these libraries have been subject to intimidation and violence by groups of youngsters in recent years.
For example, more than one attempt has been made to set fire at Abington Library.
What would happen if only one member of staff was on duty at the time?
NCC has taken the dedication of library staff for granted for years, but may have gone too far this time.
It's time to tell the NCC that these changes are not acceptable for, if we don't, other cuts will be introduced which will more seriously threaten the library service.
Ron Mendel,
President, Northampton Trade Union Council.
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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