Together In Care
No elderly couple will be split up if they are forced into care, says the Government
The Government has unveiled plans to build more "extra care" housing - a form of very sheltered accommodation with care on hand - for frail couples to live in. Local authorities will be encouraged to bid for a share of an extra £40 million a year that is being made available.
It is one of a series of proposals designed to ease pressure on the so-called "sandwich generation", working families who have to look after both their children and their parents.
Other proposals include extra financial support for those caring for elderly relatives and a major package of measures aimed at helping those who give up their jobs or free time to help with bathing, dressing, shopping, cooking and other aspects of personal care.
Extra Care Housing
"Extra care" housing is a form of specialised housing for older people who would traditionally have been accommodated in sheltered housing, residential care or nursing homes.
The purpose is to enable residents to live independently and remain in a home of their own, with appropriate round-the-clock support. That can include very high level nursing care needs, including palliative care for the terminally ill.
Ministers say it should be an option for older couple threatened with separation when one has to enter a care home and the other remains at home. Instead, they could opt to become tenants together in "extra care" accommodation.
Support for Carers
Harriet Harman told the BBC's Andrew Marr show that Labour was also ready to address the plight of the "working daughter" who felt torn between caring for elderly parents, her job and caring for her children.
"How do we support families when they're doing that very important work of caring for older relatives?" she said,
"There's a lot of discussion about respite care, about how we make sure people don't have to have a choice of caring for older relatives and having to throw in their job, how we have really much better support for families which are multi-generational."
Current benefit rules meaning that the carer's allowance of £48.65 a week is not available to anyone earning more than £87 a week are expected to be scrapped.
Miss Harman also wants flexible working hours to become as commonplace for people with responsibility for elderly parents as it now is for mothers of young children.
Miss Harman is planning a major information campaign to encourage all those with elderly dependents to use new rights to request flexible working. While employers can decline the requests, employees can appeal internally against a refusal, and then go to an employment tribunal, where they can be awarded up to eight weeks' pay.
"You don't have to be a carer as such," Miss Harman said.
"You just have to be a daughter or son with an elderly mother or father and you can say to your employer: 'I would like some flexibility'.
"It might be starting work late on a Monday morning to take your mother to a day centre or to visit your father to make sure he's set up for the week.
"There is a new right to request that sort of flexibility that people don't know about."
Other proposals being considered include "salaries" for full-time carers, increases in the carers' allowance, and new rights to leave.
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