Housing minister helps elderly veterans retain independence

Housing minister Kris Hopkins has announced that the government is to provide extra support to the country’s elderly veterans through helping them to live in their own homes and maintain their independence for longer. Seven areas in the UK are to be provided with additional funding to, as Hopkins previously stated, “support older veterans to live in their own homes and maintain their independence in later life”.

Hopkins, who is himself a former soldier having served in the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, is fully supportive of this extra funding that should make a dramatic difference to the lives of those who have fought for our country, where their independence can be restored in the form of home mobility aids. Unlike other new stair lift grants, this extra funding looks to make it easier for the nation’s veterans to receive such financial aid in certain areas of the country.

Giving back

East Herts, the City of York, Huntingdonshire, Plymouth, Waveney, Portsmouth and Fulham are all areas set to benefit from the fund, and councils are also being encouraged to claim back the costs accrued through making changes to homes to make them more accessible to such elderly veterans.

The funding, totalling £170,000, comes on top of the already existing £200,000 paid out to councils to make the lives of those affected easier and more comfortable. This comes as the government not only declared a further push to support the country’s armed forces as they enter old age, but also announced a promise to help military families get onto the property ladder. Hopkins said of the additional funding in this article that is has enabled people to “make the adaptions to suit the changing needs of local veteran’s in older age”, which “has made independent living a possibility for more of our heroes”.

While the new fund will benefit many of the nation’s elderly, those who are not eligible can benefit from the stair lifts and rise and recliner chairs for the elderly available at Handicare’s superb value pricing.

Image Credit: jenny downing (flickr.com)