Welcome to the social care and welfare benefits side of the tcell.org.uk website.

DLA reform and Personal Independence Payment – completing the detailed design - Consultation closes 30th June 2012

Changes to contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance effective 30th April 2012

Stop and review the cuts to benefits and services which are falling disproportionately on disabled people, their carers and families : e-petition ends 1/11/12

Sharing your experience of migration from Incapactity Benefit to Employment & Support Allowance (ESA)

Government news and related items are listed as we continue to campaign, lobby, consult, discuss and inform upon issues relating to benefits, social care, service provision, rights and responsibilities from those, like us, who live with or are affected by HIV/AIDS.

We use our Forums (click here) to disseminate information and facilitate your comments and queries.  The volume of information can vary from day to day and the menus to the right detail the last 10 New Forum Topics and Recent Comments. To keep up to date always check the forum relevant to your area of interest for the latest postings or use the search box in the top right hand corner of the page.

There are many changes to benefits & the "Back to work" programmes over this parliament (2010-15). The new "Universal Credit" , trial migration of existing Incapacity Benefit (IB) to Employment & Support Allowance (ESA) with the main roll-out from February 2011. Changes to Disability Living Allowance to Personal Independence Payment planned most notable the change to the mobility component for those in care homes or hospital for 28 days (84 days for children). There will be further reform to all welfare benefits & social care with significant cuts planned across the board.

You can also find additional information about Attendance Allowance, Carers Allowance and Disability Living Allowance.

We don't yet know how this will impact upon existing HIV claimants but will work, as always, with other agencies to get the information out to you. If you are currently in receipt of Incapacity Benefit please click here to read some important information released by the Dept. of Works and Pensions in error. Welfare benefits, entitlements, law and criteria changes regularly.

Community and Social Care Services provision provided by the state, the NHS, your local council or Primary Care Trust (PCT) or the voluntary (Third) sector has and will continue to change. In 2009 we developed a forum for information on Community and Social Care issues, this looks at an individual rights, entitlements and responsibilities; you may find further assistance and information with other day-to-day issues here, even help or support you were not aware of.

Local councils received income from additional sources other than your council tax; central government is a major provider of this income, which is paid through the Area Base Grant, for more information Click here . We would like to extend this information to cover the rest of the United Kingdom and need your help if this information is known and available. We requested and analysed London Councils and the support delivered through personnel budgets and direct payments . We have also just submitted a FOI request seeking the budget allowance and spend by London Councils for 2010/11 on Supporting People Grant and Carers projects and support

Government work and legalisation has already been set in place to help support and assist our lives through the Disabled Equality Duty, Gender Equality, Equality Act, Community Care (Direct Payment) Act and much more. The "Roadmap 2025" document recently published will help with our campaign. The publication last year by Sigma Research's "Framework for better living with HIV in England" are amongst other reports and issues raised, which we hope will be used to set a National Framework of support and assistance for all. 

If you live within Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales or the European Union, you will find additional information here specifically to you. Are you HIV+ in work or seeking work here is some additional information for you, also we would like to hear and encourage you to leave information purely on social events that HIV people can engage with or email for us to post.

We continue to rely on YOU to let us know about YOUR experiences, through sharing our experiences and information, we can all better deal with the issues at hand and face them collectively, as we continue to support each other.  You may also be interested in the work done by the  All Party Parliamentary Group on HIV/AIDS and coverage of the HIV community in Baseline magazine.

We will continue, as best we can, to keep you up-to-date upon matters around welfare and social care issues as well as consultations or surveys you can take part in or you yourself can write to them.

We cannot deal with individual issues directly, as we are not qualified welfare advisors. Where you have a particular issue we always recommend that you should seek proper or legal advice from a Welfare Rights Worker, Social Services, a Solicitor or a suitably qualified person.

Any comments, issues etc. feel free to post a comment , email or .

For help and support on how to use the Forums.

This information contained within this site is published, "as is" and T_hCell accepts no liability for how you use it. Comments/Content are the responsibility of the originating author. They are not to be taken as the view of TCell. Accordingly T_hCell accepts no liability. T_hCell is not responsible for the content of external websites. Navigation and use of information on external websites is at the users own risk. TCell is a wholly independent organisation. You should not consider any externally linked organisation or website as endorsed or recommended by T_hCell. Links are provided, in good faith, to information you may find useful.