NXgirl

That sounds a horribly difficult situation. I don't know what I'd do in that situation, especially as it sounds as though your parents live too far away for you to be able to help directly. Like several of the other posters here, I think that it might be worth investigating a mobility scooter further. I think that these can sometimes be funded using the motability scheme (it sounds as though your parents might be eligible on the basis of disability, though there's quite a bit of paperwork if they haven't already done it). Alternatively, it's often possible to get second hand scooters. Taxicard, dial-a-ride, online delivery and local charities are all excellent ideas as well. Might it be worth trying to speak to someone at the local Age Concern to see if they have volunteers who might do basic tasks? Otherwise, social services can often provide home help, who can do bits and pieces around the home as well as picking up shopping and running small errands. Citizen's Advice Bureaux or Age Concern would be my first point of call - they should be able to point you in the right direction, if nothing else.

From what (little) I've heard, it all sounds rather indiscriminate and demeaning. If it were possible to enrich the community by using the skills and time of those who don't work by matching them up with jobs that might not otherwise be done (listening to children read one-to-one in schools, visiting the elderly, helping to maintain the local environment, for example) then maybe. Having been off work previously for health reasons, I know that it can be extremely difficult to regain the confidence to do anything at all, but I'm not sure that encouraging everyone into semi-manual labour is going to be helpful in that respect. I've just moved to ED from an ex-council flat in Bermondsey, and I'm trying to think of the people that lived in the block who were unemployed, and what they would have made of the proposals. Lots of them were very much of the opinion that they'd been hard-done-by and that benefits were their right.

I like the Jane Asher shop in Chelsea, and they're very good online as well. Having said that, I would absolutely not turn down the opportunity to have specialist cake supplies on my doorstep! Though it might prove detrimental to my bank balance. And my kitchen is already covered in edible glitter...