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Contact providing HemiHelp services from this April

Wednesday 18th April 2018

Contact is taking over HemiHelp services, and will now support children and young people living with Hemiplegia.

Help us understand where cuts are happening across the country

Tuesday 17th April 2018

We would appreciate you taking five minutes of your time to complete our very short survey so we know what is happening in your local area.

Increase in Carer’s Allowance earnings limit and extra help for claimants in Scotland

Monday 9th April 2018

Carer's Allowance is the main benefit for carers. However, if you are a working carer, you cannot receive this benefit if your earnings are more than a set amount. This is known as the 'earnings limit'.

More than half of claimants to decline new mortgage interest loan

Wednesday 4th April 2018

More than half of claimants say they will decline the offer a new loan towards their mortgage interest costs.

Universal Credit extended to more areas from today

Wednesday 28th March 2018

From today, Wednesday 28 March, the Universal Credit full service is being extended to the Barking, Acton, Ealing and Palmers Green job centres in London.

Education, Health and Care plan deadline approaches - what should you do?

Tuesday 27th March 2018

Statements of special educational needs have been replaced by Education Health and Care (EHC) plans, with transfers from the old to the new taking place in a phased way. The final deadline in law for this process is 1 April 2018. However, some local authorities will not be able to meet this deadline, and so there will still be some statements in place after 1 April.

Contact’s head of campaigns makes award finalist for school transport campaign!

Thursday 22nd March 2018

We are delighted to let you know that our head of campaigns, Una Summerson, was announced as a finalist in the Sheila McKechnie Foundation Awards held last night for her work highlighting the challenges many families with disabled face getting their children to and from school each day.

Meet our fantastic London Marathon runners in new blog series

Monday 19th March 2018

The London Marathon is only five weeks away, and we have 11 amazing runners who have been training and fundraising with all their might to represent us at this year's event.

Sign our petition to close school transport loophole

Friday 16th March 2018

Although the law says that young people are expected to be in school or training until they are 18, local councils do not have to provide them with free school transport once they turn 16. We are calling on the government to close this loophole for disabled youngsters as they face additional challenges getting to school or college.

New tribunal powers on health and social care (England)

Wednesday 14th March 2018

What do tribunals do? The First Tier Tribunal hears appeals from parents and young people about local authority decisions on Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans. Currently, the tribunal can only consider appeals about the educational parts of the EHC plan. The tribunal powers are being extended as part of a two year national trial. This will enable a single route of appeal about the education, health and social care elements of an EHC plan. These powers apply to local authority decisions made from 3rd April 2018 onwards.