MPs call on welfare bosses to speed up redress over carer’s allowance scandal

An influential MPs’ committee has urged welfare bosses to speed up redress for tens of thousands of unpaid carers who stand to have huge benefit debts written off after they were wrongly hit with carer’s allowance penalties.The public accounts committee (PAC) said management failures and “systemic issues” at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) had led to carers being incorrectly forced to repay overpayments running into thousands of pounds.The committee said a “lack of integrated, concerted leadership” allowed carer’s allowance problems to proliferate for years and the DWP must now rebuild trust with carers by giving the issue “the leadership and attention it has long deserved”.Its comments are the latest in a series of damaging official criticisms of the DWP hierarchy’s role in longstanding carer’s allowance injustices. Last week, the work and pensions committee chair, Debbie Abrahams, accused it of a “culture of complacency”

Exercise can be ‘frontline treatment’ for mild depression, researchers say

Aerobic exercise such as running, swimming or dancing can be considered a frontline treatment for mild depression and anxiety, according to research that suggests working out with others brings the most benefits.Scientists analysed published reviews on exercise and mental health and found that some of the greatest improvements were observed in young adults and new mothers – groups that are considered particularly vulnerable to mental health problems.While aerobic group exercise emerged as the most effective physical activity for reducing depression and anxiety, low-intensity programmes that lasted only a couple of months may be best for anxiety, the researchers said.“Exercise can have a similar effect, and sometimes a stronger impact, than traditional treatments,” said Neil Munro, a psychologist at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia. “Getting moving, in whatever shape or form works best for each person, can help mitigate depression and anxiety symptoms

We need a fresh vision to save our high streets | Letters

Regarding your editorial (The Guardian view on high-street decline: a symbol of failure in a discontented nation, 3 February), saving high streets requires four things that the Treasury, the dead hand of government innovation, won’t like.First, it requires an overhaul of the business rates system, and second, a new tax for online business. Third, it requires compelling landlords to charge reasonable rents.Fourth, and finally, it requires local authorities the financial headroom to buy up vacant retail space. This ought to enable innovative community and business enterprises to flourish in what would otherwise be an overtaxed and overpriced rental market

Tom Maley obituary

My husband, Tom Maley, who has died aged 84, combined an exacting professional life in education, computing and braille with a musician’s appetite for company and mischief. Blind since early childhood, Tom refused the role of the heroic “overcomer”. He simply got on with things, usually at speed, with a running commentary that made any room feel more alive.Tom lost his sight before his third birthday because of retinoblastoma, an aggressive childhood tumour that led to the removal of both eyes. Blindness shaped his methods, but never diminished his curiosity or sense of fun

People with obesity 70% more likely to be hospitalised by or die from infection, study finds

People living with obesity are 70% more likely to be hospitalised by or die from an infection, with one in 10 infection-related deaths globally linked to the condition, research suggests.Being an unhealthy weight significantly increases the risk of severe illness and death from most infectious diseases, including flu, pneumonia, gastroenteritis, urinary tract infections and Covid-19, according to a study of more than 500,000 people.Obesity may already be a factor in as many as 600,000 of 5.4 million deaths (11%) from infectious diseases every year, researchers found.The study’s first author, Dr Solja Nyberg, of the University of Helsinki, said the problem could worsen

Joy Davies obituary

My mother, Joy Davies, who has died aged 89, was a chemist, social worker and passionate advocate for people with severe learning difficulties.Born in Ormesby, North Yorkshire, to Olive (nee Postgate), a midwife, and Thomas Hansell, a butcher, Joy went to the Cleveland school (now Teesside High) in Eaglescliffe. She left aged 16 and decided against working on the family farm near Swainby in North Yorkshire, choosing instead to join the Ministry of Agriculture, based in Newcastle upon Tyne. Her work testing milk at farms took her all over a region that remained close to her heart all her life.In the late 1950s, she joined British Titan Products, a company that manufactured titanium oxide, as a chemist, and worked in the company’s laboratories in Billingham, near Middlesbrough