LAW AND BENEFIT REVIEW

[part of the 'Disability Matters' & 'Law and Benefit Review' Group]
'for all disability issues’
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REVIEWS, ARTICLES, COMMENT, UPDATES, LEGISLATION, BENEFITS, PENSIONS, CARING, NHS, BILLS WATCH, ETC.
January 2008
[edition 20]

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Welcome prematurely to 2008 and the first Law and Benefit Review of the New Year. We all sincerely hope you will enjoy the festive season and have a healthy, pain free and hospital free twelve months. As you will have noticed, this edition of the LBR has been posted earlier than the first day of January because of the long Christmas and New Year holidays when our webmaster team are enjoying a well earned rest.

Our Editor has suddenly taken massive strides in the right direction, he underwent minor surgery in mid-December which turned out well and at the time of writing he is awaiting the result of a biopsy. He wishes to thank the many telephone callers and e-mailers who wished him well, your kind thoughts were much appreciated and no doubt helped his recovery, so it looks like all go for the new year - fingers crossed. Please enjoy the January 2008 LBR and don’t eat too much.

Once again there is not much good news for the start of the New Year. We don’t think the Government does ‘good-news’ anymore and even the April 2008 pension rises are miserly as article 6 below will indicate. Parliament will be recessed for Christmas by the time you read this, so lets hope that when they return the ‘good news’ will return with them.

1: DEMENTIA VICTIMS ARE STARVING: It is being alleged by the media that a study has found that care home residents suffering dementia get little more than five minutes of conversation and special attention a day. They are routinely ignored and left on their own by staff, and most are given too little to do to simulate their minds. Some homes order sufferers to sit still in their chairs and are refusing them to stand or move.

These astounding allegations by the Alzheimer's Society follows a serious of study’s and criticism of the standard of care in care and nursing homes generally. There have been repeated claims of residents being abused, going hungry, abused, assaulted, unwashed and subject to numbing levels of medication plus allegations that those who pay their own care bills are often fleeced.

The study is calling for higher training for staff, we ask how can people look after patients without being first trained sufficiently? There are some 700, 000 suffers of dementia in the UK with some 244,000 in care homes. The Government is being criticised for not putting more funding in to the care system to guarantee proper standards of training.

Ministers are preparing a green paper on the care home system which is due to be published this year [2008] which is expected to reveal new Government thinking both on costs and standards of care. The first ever national strategy on care is due to be announced in August 2008 acknowledging that the current care system is letting down too many people with dementia and their families.

2: TEMPORARY WORKERS NEW RIGHTS: The European Union is proposing to grant temporary workers such as part-time care and personal assistants, full employment rights after only six weeks of such employment. The Government is expected to oppose this EU proposal but it is early days yet. The implications of the new rights means that what full time employees receive now, part-time workers will also be entitled too. Where this leaves those who employ carers and personal assistants on a part-time basis are yet to find out, but be rest assured we will keep a close eye on this matter and report again in due course.

3: IS IT THE END FOR PATIENTLINE?: Patientline, who have been the subject of numerous complaints now for years as well as criticism for the high charges they introduced for using hospital bed side telephones and other facilities following a revamp of the hospital communication system. Both incoming and outgoing calls were far above normal BT rates. The company is now £82.5 in debt and they are trying to restructure the debt.

Patient groups and disability organisations, including us, campaigned to reduce the un-realistic telephone charges and they did fall, but not so far enough as to be realistic. Patientline provides the beside telephone, TV and radio service, and has taken a knock recently in the usage of the telephone service when many hospitals started to permit patients and staff to use mobile cell phones in certain hospital areas. If Patientline goes under one wonders what will happen to the facilities now provided?

4: PRIORITY WHEN THE POWER GOES OFF: Are you on your electricity/water suppliers ‘priority list’ when the power/water supply is cut off? Those who use oxygen concentrator machines need a constant supply of electricity because without such the machines will not obviously. function. Owners of oxygen concentrators must have a constant supply of O2 for use at any time or constantly, depending on the users medical circumstances, so it is essential that such users must have an oxygen cylinder for emergency use which can be obtained from your oxygen supplier but these cylinders only have a limited supply what ever their size.

It is essential that if you are elderly, frail or seriously disabled and have breathing problems, arthritis, pulmonary diseases, heart problems, etc. that your medical conditions are registered on the ‘priority list’ with the companies call centre who actually supplies the utility which may not be the same company to whom you actually pay the bill to. These are the people who will throw the switch or turn the tap to cut off your electricity or water.

To apply for your details to be considered for inclusion on the ‘priority list’, first inform the company to whom you pay your bills to who will send a form to you for completion and on return will pass your medical needs onto the utility suppliers if your needs justify it.

In times of loss of power or water, the supplier should contact all those on the ‘priority list’ within the post code areas where the utility has been disconnected to check on their situation and to inform those on the list of the utility situation. This will only occur when it is anticipated that there will be a long disconnection of the utility. If the utility is to be disconnected for a long period than arrangements will be made to supply a water bowser or small generator that plugs into a power socket in the house to restore a electricity supply to run concentrator machines and provide some warmth with the bowser supplying fresh water for hot baths.

Normally, operators on the emergency utility telephone number will update information either personally or via a recorded message so if you think that you are getting close to using up your oxygen cylinder supply of O2, you should contact them and ask for a generator or bowser and/or the disconnection is going to last. If the supplier does not telephone within the first hour when long disconnections are anticipated then you should contact them using the emergency telephone number shown in local telephone lists. Maybe this number should be kept on the oxygen concentrator somewhere for emergencies to save looking for it in the dark - and don’t forget the torch. It has been found that sometimes all that is received from the emergency numbers is a recorded message when a large area has been discounted such as after a storm, heavy snow, high winds, etc. informing everybody of the problem and estimated time when the utility should be restored. If this occurs and O2 supplies have become urgent, then contact your local hospital for help and if needs be, dial 999 and request an ambulance to convey the user of the oxygen equipment to your local A & E for an oxygen supply or carers or personal assistants could take the patient to A & E where oxygen is in plentiful supply.

If you change utility suppliers at any time, do not forget to inform the new company of your medical problems so that they can include you on the ‘priority list’ is your problems justify it.

5: HOSPITAL MAKES £2.414.672m A YEAR ON CAR PARKING CHARGES: Southampton University Hospital in Hampshire, much criticised for their parking policies, have made £2.4 million in a year from out-patients, disabled drivers, visitors and staff for parking within the hospital grounds. The hospital is top of the league of thirty hospitals who have made in excess of £1m from parking charges. In total, the NHS Trusts have made £100m from these parking charges this year.

The Patient Association has condemned these fees as being “immoral”. Hospital visitors and outpatients should be charged a moderate charge and staff exempt from parking charges altogether when working. It has been proved that hospital car parks, just like supermarket car parks, have been used for long term parking by shoppers moving around town centres and drivers even using free hospital bus services to take them to their place of work in the nearby town. Perhaps the charges are a two edged sword with the genuine hospital users coming off worse. Many hospitals employ private car parking services to control car parks who issue fixed penalty notices as well as carrying out clamping to offenders.

The Health Service Journal and a Parliamentary Health Select Committee have described hospital parking as a “complete mess” . The range of parking charges runs from 40p to £4.0 per hour. The select committee also found that in Scotland only 6% of their hospitals charged for parking compared with 92% of NHS English hospitals, 20% in Northern Ireland and 53% in Wales. These figures come when it is being estimated that the NHS will make a £1.8 billion surplus at the end of their financial year.

It should be remembered that hospitals have variations on their parking policies and parking changing rates, what one hospital within the same NHS Trust area operates will not necessarily be the same as the other, so look at the information boards by the ticket machines as some hospitals still do not charge blue badge holders as is the case at Cheltenham General Hospital in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, UK.

Finally, when parking and using the blue badge, remember that the blue badge holder must be within the vehicle when parking on a disabled parking bay otherwise an offence will be committed.

6: CARER AND HER BOYFRIEND ROB ELDERLY EMPLOYERS: A residential carer fleeced an elderly couple out of £400,000 worth of antiques. The carer searched the house for items shown in an action brochure and then faked a burglary making off with 200 items with the help of the boyfriend whilst one of the employers was out and his wife who suffered from dementia lay in her bed whilst the thefts took place. She died two months afterwards but her death was said to have been un-associated with the thefts.

The police arrested three people in connection with the fake robbery and these despicable people were charged. The carer received six and half years in prison for conspiracy to steal and her boyfriend was jailed for five and half years. The third party received six years for his trouble. Lets hope they all serve their full terms of imprisonment.

7: HOSPITAL NIGHTMARE BLUNDERS: 90,000 patient deaths a year could be linked to hospital blunders. 1 in 10 NHS patients is harmed whilst in hospital and 1 in 10 errors may have been contributed to the patients death. This has been revealed in a study of patients admitted to a large teaching hospital in the North of England.

Nationally, it could mean that 90,000 patients going into hospital each year end up damaged from errors including injury, infection, poor diagnoses and inadequate care.

Among the problems identified are:

1. hospital acquired infections such as MRSA
2. complications during or after surgery
3. wrong diagnoses
4. pressure ulcers
5. drug complications
6. falls
7. unplanned transfers to operating theatres or and intensive care
8. unplanned readmissions.

These errors may have contributed to as many as 90,000 deaths and a similar amount of cases of permanent disability. These matters have cost the NHS £2 billion in extra beds.

Researches have received the hospital notes of 1006 patients admitted to an un-named hospital during a five month period and found that between 8 and 10 per cent of them were harmed because of the care [or lack of care] they had received. Patients under going surgery were most likely to be harmed but other problems included falls, burns and complications leading to heart attacks. More than half [56 per cent] of the incidents caused injury that lasted four weeks, another 17 per cent left patients disabled for up to six months, 4 per cent caused disability for six to twelve months and another 11 per cent caused permanent disability and a further 1 in 10 errors contributed to the patients death. From our calculations that leaves a awfully small number of hospital patients in theory who enter hospital and leave without some kind of harm of death. But remember, there are many millions of elderly, disabled and frail people out of the UK’s population of 63,000.000 so these figures have to be taken pro-rata.

These horrifying storey’s continue but we are sure that you have read enough. The writer has had a number of experiences in hospital over a period of some 50 years and only once has experienced problems with the catching of C/difficle in 2003 caused by dirty hospital conditions. Recently, three hospital stays, two small operations, and one biopsy have gone without any problems, so we are sure that there are many hundreds of thousands that have been equally treated but having said this, the figures produced by the study group are almost unbelievable.

8: YOU WERE BETTER OFF IN 1950’S: Pensioners today were better off in the 1950’s than they are today according to figures published by a government department - The Office for National Statistics. The figures show that the basic state pension is currently just 15.9% of the average wage, compared with 18.4% 57 years ago. In 1980 when Thatcher was in power, one good thing she did was to keep state pensions worth even more at 24.4% of the then national wage.

Surprise, surprise, the elderly are the worse off now because of living cost - particularly power, water and council tax bills increasing. Also, during recent months, increases in food prices and huge rises in fuel prices have been apparent as we reported last month. How far does the government expect state pensions to stretch before breaking? Also, the Pension Credit system is so complicated and complex as we have reported before, that 1.7 million fail to claim it while many are facing means-testing for state benefits. To had more salt in the wound, the number of pensioners in severe poverty has also started to rise.

The Minister for Pensions Mr Mike O’Brian insists on saying that “average pensioner incomes have increased 29% in real terms since 1997”. Is he another Minster living somewhere else and not on planet earth? The Minster also says “ The basic state pension has more than doubled in value in real terms since 1950”. Clearly he does not go out-side his office to see how much petrol and diesel costs, or the current price of milk, bread, eggs and everything else is now. In ‘real terms Mr O’Brian, everything has gone up - that is what ‘real’ means!!!!

There is some GOOD NEWS, so we suppose that we can forgive O’Brian slightly for his views as he has announced that the basic state pension for an individual is to rise to £90.70 in April this year and £145.05 for couples, but this will go nowhere near closing the gap between today and the 1950’s when the basic state pension for a single person was £1.30 a week - imagine it. Today its £87.30.

Following the announcement of the Pensions Bill in 2007, workers from 22 years upwards earning over £5000 per annum will have to contribute into various schemes to ensure a private retirement pension with the worker paying 3% of his wage into a scheme and the government 1%. Thankfully, us ’oldies’ will not be involved in these new schemes and one can only hope that the whole thing does not go belly up in years to come like many employers pension schemes have today, because employers will be again be involved in the ‘workplace pension’ with the employer also contributing towards the pension.

9: WINTER COLD DEATHS: Official figures have just been released on last winters [2006/2007] figures when 25,000 elderly people died of cold. There were 23,900 more deaths in England and Wales than the average non-winter months, including 19,200 among those aged 75 and over. If added to figures for Northern Ireland and Scotland, the toll comes to 294 more deaths than the previous years total of 25,393.

Help the aged who campaigns hard to increase the Winter Fuel Payment describes these figures “as nothing short of a national scandal “ and we agree. The spokesman for Help the Aged also said “It’ a obscene that in this day and age more than 25,000 people over 65 in the UK are allowed to die from the cold. Until fuel poverty is eradicated, older people’s live’s will continue to hang in the balance.

The average fuel bill has risen from £572 in 2003 when the winter fuel payment [WFP] first commenced to £924 today but the WFP has failed to move and remains static year after year. This means that when the WFP first started it help people pay about half of their fuel bills, now it barely covers one fifth. Three of the main contributors to the deaths of so many people are the lack of sufficient money to keep warm, pneumonia and bronchitis. How many more deaths will it need for the government to increase the WFP?

10: HEALTH AND SAFETY ENDANGERS YOUR TAXI RIDE: A frail 90 year old lady released from hospital was dumped on a doorstep by a taxi driver who refused to help her enter her home which was a sheltered accommodation for Health and Safety reasons. This case is not the first time such action has been carried out by taxi drivers and hopefully it will be the last if they value the public service licences and their livelihoods. The lady was stranded in the cold in just her night clothes for two hours following a painful hip operation.

Three questions arise her, why was the lady allowed to travel home alone and the taxi drivers employer needs to get their act together. The hospital authority where the operation was carried out should have ensured that the lady was suitably dressed and perhaps taken home by ambulance. The taxi firm who employed the taxi driver said that they had to protect their drivers from allegations of misconduct inside peoples homes and using the Health and Safety Act as a reason for not taking her into her flat and why was the lady left to face coming home alone when she had a daughter who arrived outside the home and found her. Why didn't she go to the hospital to accompany her mother after an operation? It seems to us that everybody is partially to blame, the hospital, the taxi driver and the daughter but of course everybody is blaming each other for the poor ladies plight.

Many hospitals have particular licensed taxi firms to operate from the hospital to take patients home. Often free ‘phones are placed in reception areas for patients to use but it seems incredible that a 90 year old lady having recently had a serious operation for a lady of that age was even allowed to leave the hospital in her night dress and unaccompanied. There are obviously lessons to be learnt her all round here. Elderly ladies must be accompanied home from hospitals and clinics at all times to ensure their safety.

Taxi’s and their drivers are licensed by local authorities and have to obey a strict code as a holder of public service vehicle licence. Thankfully, the majority of them do but clearly such issues described her have to be sorted out. There are also un-licensed so-called ’taxi’ drivers who drive un-licensed, un-insured vehicles plying for trade in areas such as railway stations and airports. Their operations are totally illegal and unlike licensed taxi drivers who have a strict fare to charge via a meter or fixed before the journey commences , the unlicensed driers can and do charge what they like to particularly to visitors to this country. The vehicles used are often defective and sometime downright dangerous and the police carry out checks around airport terminals and railway station and catch many of these unlicensed drivers, seize their vehicles and bring their endeavours to an end.

New regulations say that any new vehicle to be used as a licensed hackney carriage must comply to the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, and be fully accessible to all disabled people. They must have ramps for wheelchair access and wide opening doors. Many licensed taxis now being used in country towns will no longer be suitable as a ‘taxi’ when the regulations come fully into force in three years times, this may mean that many drivers will become unemployed as the London style taxi when new is an expensive piece of kit to purchase for a provincial tax driver although they will be allowed to purchase second hand London style taxis that are fully compliant with the DDA regulations but that is a long time off yet as these new taxis will be kept by their owners for as long as they can.

UPDATE: Since this article was finished, we have sourced some information which may go a long way to eliminating further such incidents as has been portrayed in the article. Exeter City Council has introduced a training course to ensure that their taxi drivers are more aware of the needs of disabled people. The half day course for all new and existing Exeter City Council taxi drivers. will be operated by ’Living Options Devon’.

11: CARE WORKERS KICKED OUT: Many Filipino care workers across Wales may be forced to leave the UK because of a change in immigration rules. The Home Office says employers must pay staff an hourly wage of at least £7.02 to gain work permits, but care homes say they cannot afford to pay that much - so families could have to leave Wales and return to the Philippines. However, the Home Office said work permit extensions would be granted if workers met skills criteria. Many Filipinos have moved to Wales to work as senior care workers in homes looking after elderly and vulnerable people.

12: STATE PENSION RISES INSULTING: Campaigners have criticised the government for limiting the state pension rise to inflation next year. As you have read in article 6, the basic state pension will be worth £90.70 for individuals and £145.05 for couples from April 2008 , the Pensions Minister confirmed, the rise of £3.40 and £5.45 respectively. Pension credit, which rises in line with earnings, will guarantee a minimum weekly income of £124.05 for a single pensioner and £189.35 for a couple. Pensioners' groups have called the increases "insulting".

From April 2008, no single pensioner should live on less than £124.05 a week and no couple on less than £189.35, a rise of £57 for a single pensioner and £85 for couples since 1997 so says Mr O‘Brien. From 2008 pensioners would be able to claim up to four benefits - pension credit, state pension, housing benefit and council tax benefit - through one phone call. The changes proposed intend to make the system less confusing, less intrusive and more transparent - lets wait and see!

13: NEW POWERS FOR MOTORWAY HIGHWAYS AGENCY TRAFFIC OFFICERS: We have included this article in the main Law and Benefit Review as well as on the beehivegloucestershire’ site as it has possible implications that may affect Motability vehicle drivers in the future.

All Motability contracts include as part of this wonderful package a full recovery service if one of their vehicles breaks downs, is damaged or involved in a serious road traffic accident. This service is provided by either the RAC or AA depending on which company has been awarded the contract. If you are unfortunately to be in the position whereby you need to have your Motability vehcile towed away to an authorised Motability dealership, you MUST inform the Highways Agency officers or the police of the circumstances and ask them to move the vehicle to the hard shoulder if safe to do so or remove it to he nearest intersection for removal by the Mortability agent, otherwise if the Highways Agency removes the vehicle it will cost the driver, you, from £130 upwards for the trouble plus storage charges if the vehicle is left unclaimed.

Many disabled drivers use wheel-chairs to drive their vehicles or sit on wheelchairs in specially adapted vehicles so there is the need to also look after the care of such people which the Motability agents are geared up to do. This should also be pointed to the Highway Agency and/or the police. If the driver is not at the scene of the accident, i.e. he/she has been taken to hospital, then somebody from the vehicle should remain at the scene to explain the situation to those dealing with the accident.

The Highways Agency has commenced a public consultation over proposals to allow Traffic Officers to remove broken down or abandoned vehicles from the strategic road network, i.e. motorways. The consultation will last for 12 weeks and the Highways Agency is inviting drivers and other interested groups to comment on the proposals.

In its consultation document, The Removal, Storage and Disposal of Vehicles by Traffic Officers and the Secretary of State for Transport, the Highways Agency is seeking new legislation to remove certain, abandoned and broken down vehicles from the strategic road network which includes England's motorways and major A roads. Breakdowns on the strategic road network cover only around one to two percent of all break downs. The powers that would be given to Traffic Officers would be similar to those already exercised by the police.

The proposal for the new legislation aims to:

• provide Traffic Officers with similar powers to the police to request or remove from the strategic road network abandoned and broken down vehicles causing an obstruction or danger to other road users.
• provide the Secretary of State with powers to store and dispose of abandoned vehicles removed by Traffic Officers.
• allow the Secretary of State to recover charges in respect of vehicles removed, stored or disposed under the regulations.

Derek Turner, the Highways Agency's Director of Traffic Operations, said, "Giving Traffic Officers the power to arrange the removal of vehicles which are abandoned or are causing an obstruction or danger to other drivers on the network was always planned. These powers, which would apply at all but the most serious police-led incidents, are an extension of the work they are already doing around the clock to improve safety on our motorways. However, we are keen to hear what everyone else thinks."

The Traffic Officer Service was introduced as a result of the Traffic Management Act 2004 and the power to remove vehicles is being sought through a statutory instrument. Giving Traffic Officers the new powers, will help keep carriageways and hard shoulders clear of vehicles which have been abandoned or cause obstruction or danger to other road users as well as keeping traffic moving safely. The police will retain their powers to remove and dispose of vehicles but the extension of similar powers to Traffic Officers will free up police time. The Highways Agency supports the valued role of motoring clubs and other suitable private arrangements since these will continue to provide the vast majority of vehicle removals from carriageways and hard shoulders. The Highways Agency has already been talking to the police and the vehicle recovery industry about the proposals.

We at ‘Disability Matters’ have written to the Highways Agency in response to the consultation paper informing them of the Motability service.

14: TRANSPORT BILL UPDATE: As part of our new year promises, we are now updating information on Bills from our new data base, that have been presented to Parliament and which will in due course affect the elderly and disabled in the future. It is our intention to follow the path of selected Bills that could affect elderly and disabled through the Parliamentary process. The Transport Bill is just one of many.

This Bill looks at important areas of public transport like local bus services and sets out proposals for a more consistent approach to local transport planning. It plans to reform the existing laws on road pricing schemes for local authorities who wish to have schemes in their areas. It was published in draft form in the 2006-07 session of Parliament. The Bill includes changes that followed public consultation, further discussion on the role of traffic commissioners and the report of the Transport Select Committee which scrutinised the draft Bill in June and July 2007.

Key areas

• Enable local authorities to improve the quality of local bus services, building on the measures set out in December 2006 in the Department for Transport report, 'Putting Passengers First'
• Reform the arrangements for local transport governance in the major conurbations. This aims to encourage stronger local leadership and a coherent approach to transport across individual local authority boundaries and across different transport modes
• Reform the existing legislation relating to local road pricing schemes. This would ensure that, where local authorities wish to develop local schemes, they can do so in a way that best meets local needs - while ensuring that any schemes are consistent and interoperable.

15: PENSIONERS NEED MORE STATE BENEFIT HELP: Pensioners could be losing up to £50,000 in benefits over their lifetime, according to new research from ‘British Gas’ and ‘Help the Aged‘. Half of those entitled to more help could claim enough to cover all their fuel costs. The charity says benefits must be paid automatically if the government is to meet its fuel poverty target. Pensions Minister Mike O'Brien insists "every effort" is being made to ensure pensioners claim the correct benefits.

The research was carried out by the London School of Economics (LSE) for the British Gas Help the Aged Partnership's winter deaths campaign. Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that 22,300 people over 65 died in England and Wales last winter. Help the Aged identifies fuel poverty as a major cause of many of those deaths.

"Recent research by the British Gas Help the Aged Partnership revealed that over one million older people cut back on food to cover their heating costs," said spokesman Anna Pearson. "If the government is serious about meeting its fuel poverty commitment it must stop gambling with the lives of older people in winter, and recognise its current strategy for delivering benefits is completely off the mark," she added.

In 2001 the government pledged to lift all vulnerable households out of fuel poverty by 2010, but many campaigners fear it will not meet its target. Current figures appear to indicate the Government is going backwards on this issue. The LSE report found that around half of pensioners who were entitled to additional help could receive enough money to cover all their heating costs, lifting them out of fuel poverty entirely. Analysing the typical amount of unclaimed benefit, it suggests a sixty-five year old woman who claimed an extra £25 a week would receive more than £30,000 over the rest of her expected lifetime.

16: DOES YOUR DISABILITY, MOBILITY OR ILLNESS AFFECT YOUR DRIVING?: There is increasing evidence to suggest through motorway police checks, that the DVLA is increasing their investigations into the state of health for elderly drivers. Shocking results have revealed that eye-sights tests were alarming, with over 60’s driving with cataracts in both eyes, not wearing glasses which had been prescribed for them to use when driving, disabilities, restricted mobility, prescribed drugs and certain illnesses affecting the manner in which the vehicle was being controlled.

If you drive and suffer from any form arthritis for instance, then no doubt your driving skills will be affected in some way by restricted movement to the neck, spine, back, hands, problems in reversing, etc. There are certain notify-able disabilities or illnesses that the DVLA must be informed of, such as rheumatoid arthritis, anklylosing spondylitis and its allied diseases, blackouts, stokes, fits, etc. The DVLA hold lists of such notify able disabilities so ask for a copy. If you suffer from a ‘notify-able disease then you must inform the DVLA on form D497 available from your local DVLA office and completed by you. Failure to declare any disability that affects your driving could have serious implications as insurance companies will invalidate insurance cover when the vehicle/driver is involved in an accident for instance, followed by a possible police prosecution for no insurance and loss of licence.

If you are doubtful as to your competency to drive safely, you could arrange a driving assessment followed by a written report that costs £45 where your skills, eyes, reactions, etc. will be tested. These tests can be arranged by contacting www.direct.gov.uk/drivingtest.

There are of course various accessories and adaptations that may be fitted to a vehicle such as larger mirrors, powered steering and automatic drive to assist many drivers suffering from certain restricting mobility and disabilities. If you are purchasing a new vehicle and qualify for Value Added Tax freedom then ensure that there ‘accessories’ are fitted prior to when purchasing the ‘new’ vehicle to qualify for a VAT free accessory and/or car.

The DVLA may well send for your driving licence if they think that your mobility, illness or disability is affecting your driving. They may ask your doctor for a medical report or ask you to take a driving assessment or eye test. According to the state of your driving deficiencies, your licence may well be restricted as to what you may drive. [If an Australian idea is to be adopted, the drivers over 85 would be restricted to a six miles radius of their own homes]. The licence may also contain restrictions to the vehicle such as it must be fitted with extended mirrors, steering wheel knob, automatic transmission and power steering. Other automatic controls for gear changing, clutch control, braking, etc. will also be indicated on the driving licence. No charge is made for the replacing of the driving licence and existing photographs used.

Finally, many prescribed drugs contain warnings on the Patient Information Leaflets about driving and the operation of machinery after consuming some drugs. Such drugs can in some cases cause sleepiness, produce drowsiness, slow reactions, light-headedness and dizziness, giving the appearance of being ‘under-the influence’ to the police. The police have powers to stop drivers who they think are affected by drink or drugs resulting in possible arrest and prosecution.

17: LIE DETECTOR TESTS BENEFITS CHEATS IN SCOTLAND: A telephone lie detector has discovered that a third of people on benefits called by Edinburgh Council may be cheating the system. From 75 calls, 25 have been flagged as suspect and marked for further investigation over the past two months by the voice risk analysis system. The equipment detects the varying levels of stress in a person's voice as they talk about their benefit claim. A caller's tone at the start of the conversation is compared with the end.

The results come as the council prepares to launch a campaign reinforcing the message that benefit cheats "will not be tolerated". It also wants to highlight how the public has a role in helping to catch those who illegally claim money they are not entitled to. One Edinburgh resident was recently sentenced to 150 hours community service for claiming more than £11,000 in benefits over five years while she was employed.

18: FREE HEARING TESTS: A private company, HSAC or H S Audio logical centres Ltd are offering FREE hearing tests at certain NHS hospital out-patient locations. Following an NHS trail across the UK of 35,000 people aged between 55 to 74 years, it was found that routine hearing tests offered “substantial benefits” to the participants and were good value for money to the NHS.

More than 1 in 10 of people in the trail were found to have a moderate to severe hearing problem. Hearing aid services from the NHS have recently been rather slow during 2007 with waits up to a year or longer for analogue aids to be changed for the new digital ones. Identifying people early is vital for life because on an average people live for 10 -15 years with hearing difficulties before presenting themselves to a doctor. Only 1 in 3 were found to have hearing aids but 12% of people had moderate or severe hearing difficulties after taking the test.

Early indications of hearing loss include:-

• Difficulty hearing children’s voices
• Difficulty hearing speech in groups and noisy places
• Trouble hearing at a distance - such as in a theatre, lecture hall, church, etc.
• Loss of clarity of speech

If you wish to see if the FREE hearing tests are being offered in your NHS Trust area call 0800 389 1155. Remember not all Trusts are offering this service at the moment and many homes are many ‘mailed shot’ with this offer.

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