Personal Independence Payment, also known as PIP, is a benefit available to people who have a long-term health condition or disability. It is intended to help cover the extra costs that people can face due to the impact of their condition.
There are two components to PIP:
- Daily Living component
- Mobility component
If you are eligible for PIP, how much you receive will be based on which component is most relevant to you and your needs.
The Daily Living component is aimed at people who require additional assistance in everyday life such as with eating and drinking, washing and other personal tasks, communicating with others or handling money, for example.
The Mobility component is based on providing assistance to those who find it difficult to get out and about due to their condition. This could be because they need physical help when outside of their home or require assistance with planning a trip, for example.
To find out more and to find out the rates for 2024 – click here
Leading dementia organisations have joined forces to publish a new Dementia manifesto ahead of the General Election on 4th July. This collaboration from Alzheimer Scotland, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society, Dementia UK and the UK Dementia Research Institute calls on the next Government to take action for the one in two of us who will be directly affected by dementia in our lifetime.
The full manifesto can be read and downloaded at https://www.dementiauk.org/dementia-coalition/?misc=media
Dementia is the leading cause of death in the UK and is set to become the defining health and social care challenge of our time. However, despite what many believe, dementia is not an inevitable part of ageing.
There are currently 982,000 people living with dementia in the UK, yet hundreds of thousands of people do not have a formal diagnosis, remaining in the dark about their condition and locked out of care, support and the treatment opportunities that research brings.
For those who have a diagnosis, there is no cure – the care and treatment options that exist are often disjointed, inaccessible and inadequate, for both those with the condition and for their families and carers.
Living with dementia can be exhausting and overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be this way. The manifesto draws on expertise from the range of organisations involved to demand a sustained, strategic approach to research funding, clear diagnosis targets and pathways and access to treatments and specialist care for people living with the condition:
- Prevention – including recommendations for a cross-governmental ‘Brain Health’ National Prevention Strategy to address the health and lifestyle factors that affect our risk of developing dementia
- Diagnosis – setting out the need for ambitious national diagnostic targets, a pilot of brain health clinics to deliver equitable high-quality services and the importance of investing to integrate promising research into accurate and deliverable diagnostic tools
- Support – calling for improved dementia support in primary care settings and extending the national dementia diagnosis targets to include young onset dementia, where symptoms develop under the age of 65
- Care – including a sustainable funding model for quality personalised care and an immediate review of the NHS continued healthcare funding application process to recognise the needs of people living with dementia
- Research – setting out the need to increase real-term spending on dementia research to accelerate new treatments, publish a long-term strategic approach to dementia research and promote and embed dementia research across the UK
To read the full story – click here 
Research conducted by Eurocare has examined unpaid care provided by people of all ages across Europe. It was carried out by University College London and St George’s, University of London, with support from UK charity Carers Trust and research teams in Spain, Norway and Germany.
It showed around one in 10 people aged 15 to 29 across Europe are carers. More than a quarter (27%) of these young adult carers come from households ranked in the bottom fifth for income.
Their mental health also deteriorates after becoming a carer and the impact increases the more hours they spend caring, showing the urgent need for early identification and intervention to support them. Young adults who are providing more than 20 hours of unpaid care per week are more than 96% more likely to report poor mental health compared to their peers.
Young adult carers’ education and future employment are also affected and, in the UK, there are stark inequalities in educational attainment. Young adult carers are 38% less likely than their peers to hold a university degree as their highest qualification. This rises to a staggering 86% for those who provide more than 35 hours of care per week.
To read more on this story – click here
