Ministers urged to apologise after review finds systemic failures led to carer’s allowance crisis

Ministers are facing calls to apologise and pay compensation to hundreds of thousands of unpaid carers after a damning review of the benefit system revealed some considered suicide to escape their debts.A report ordered by the government on the longstanding failures within the carer’s allowance found the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) inflicted avoidable hardship and distress on carers and led to hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money being misused.The investigation said fault lay with “systemic” issues at the DWP and said carers should not be blamed for falling foul of what it said were complex and confusing benefit rules.Unpaid carers who look after loved ones for at least 35 hours a week are entitled to £83.30 a week carer’s allowance, as long as their weekly earnings from part-time jobs do not exceed £196

What is prostate cancer and how is it diagnosed in the UK?

David Cameron has become the latest high-profile figure to back growing calls for the NHS to start screening men, or at least those at highest risk, for prostate cancer after being treated for it himself.He joined Olympic cycling champion Chris Hoy and prostate cancer charities in saying that recent advances in diagnosing the disease mean that testing can be introduced that is much safer than traditional methods, which can produce both false-positive and false-negative results.However, others, including Cancer Research UK, disagree.On Thursday, the UK National Screening Committee will meet to discuss the latest evidence on the subject. The independent committee, which advises ministers, is under pressure to allow testing to begin of those men at highest risk: black men, those with a family history of prostate, breast or cervical cancer and men who carry the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene

NHS directed pregnant women to controversial Free Birth Society via charity

Exclusive: NHS websites pointed women to factsheet featuring podcast by ‘dangerous’ influencers linked to baby deaths Full story: How the FBS is linked to baby deaths around the worldThe NHS has been directing pregnant women to a website that connected them to the Free Birth Society, an organisation that has been linked to baby deaths around the world after promoting labour without medical support.A number of NHS trusts are directing women who are contemplating a “free birth” to a charity website that until Monday referred to FBS podcasts as a source of “empowering stories” that can help British women “preparing for their own birth”.It contained a link to the FBS podcast, which medical experts warn is being used to radicalise women with misinformation.FBS advocates an extreme version of free birth, otherwise known as unassisted birth. It advises mothers not to use doctors or midwives and suggests they avoid pregnancy scans

UK charity records original music by people living with dementia

On a stage once presided over by Luciano Pavarotti, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Renée Fleming, people living with dementia are recording songs of their own composition.With the microphones of Glyndebourne opera house capturing every note, their voices rise and intertwine. Not echoing old, familiar tunes but shaping entirely new pieces expressing their feelings, hopes and fears – emotions that, when the music stops, their brains can no longer convey in mere words.“The public perception of people diagnosed with dementia is that everything is finished,” said Hazel Gaydon, events manager for the Raise Your Voice charity. “But what our excitement is embedded in is the fact that we’ve found musical creativity can trigger original words and tunes based on present and future thinking

DWP to reassess hundreds of thousands of cases in carer’s allowance scandal

Hundreds of thousands of vulnerable unpaid carers will have their cases reassessed after a damning official review concluded they had been left with huge debts because of government failure and maladministration.The review, due to be published on Tuesday, was triggered after a year-long Guardian investigation revealed how carers had been hit with draconian penalties of as much as £20,000 relating to carer’s allowance. Some were plunged into hardship, others were jailed.Ministers have promised to cancel or reduce penalties that were wrongly issued after the review concluded many were the result of official error rather than “wilful rule-breaking”.However, the government has stopped short of offering compensation to those affected

More than 100 MPs urge Streeting to approve prostate cancer screening

More than 100 MPs, including Rishi Sunak, have urged Wes Streeting to introduce screening for prostate cancer.The UK National Screening Committee, a government agency that advises ministers and the NHS about all aspects of screening, will recommend whether men at higher risk of the disease should be offered checks. It is due to write to the health secretary later this week, the Telegraph reported.Sunak, who is leading a cross-party alliance of 125 MPs, met Streeting on Monday evening to hand him an open letter urging the government to introduce tests so men at the highest risk, including Black men, men with a family history of prostate, breast or ovarian cancer, and those carrying the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, are “no longer left behind”.The letter says: “Our current opportunistic PSA [prostate-specific antigen] testing system is unstructured, inefficient and unfair – a postcode lottery where some men succeed because they know to ask or can pay privately, while others are turned away despite repeated requests