Latest news with #HelpingHand
AsiaOne
5 days ago
- Health
- AsiaOne
'Your cue to show some care': LTA rolls out new Helping Hand card for commuters who need more assistance, Singapore News
Commuters who need a little extra help when using public transport will soon have a simpler way to ask for it — with the launch of a new card under the Helping Hand scheme. In a Facebook post on Friday (May 30), the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said that commuters can indicate the type of assistance they need — such as directions, help with tapping their fare card, or being alerted when they reach their stop — on a blank space at the back of the Universal Helping Hand card. "Spot someone carrying a bright yellow card? That's your cue to show some care!" Said LTA on their Facebook post, adding that the card makes it easier for staff or other commuters to offer the necessary help. The Helping Hand scheme is an initiative by the Caring SG Commuters Committee to foster a more caring, welcoming and inclusive public transport system. In March, then-Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Transport Baey Yam Keng said in his ministry's Budget debate that the new card will be in addition to the earlier cards issued under the scheme. Under the initiative, the LTA first piloted the "May I have a seat please" sticker in October 2019 to help passengers be aware of those with hidden or invisible medical conditions who need a seat more for their public transport journeys. It later included a lanyard and card for passengers with long-term conditions in April 2021, while the sticker version is more suitable for people with short-term medical conditions. Two new cards were later introduced in May 2023 — a "This is a wheelchair" card which helps paediatric wheelchair users alert public transport staff and other passengers to give way to them, and a "Please alert me when I am approaching my stop" card for passengers with visual impairments or conditions like dementia. More than 15,000 lanyards and cards were distributed as last November and feedback "has been positive", said then-Minister of Transport Chee Hong Tat on February. Just like the three cards, the new Universal Helping Hand card has a bright yellow look. In a Facebook post on Friday, Baey, who is now Minister of State for Transport, said that the new card was developed based on commuter feedback, which recognises that those travelling on public transport have different needs. "I hope this makes commuting more inclusive and comfortable for everyone," he added. LTA said that commuters can collect the new card at passenger service services in MRT stations and bus interchanges, as well as SimplyGo ticket offices. AsiaOne has contacted LTA for more information on the new Helping Hand card. [[nid:697657]] chingshijie@
Daily Mirror
15-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mirror
Nationwide announces change to mortgage rules in major first-time buyer boost
The high street lender has reduced its stress rates - which are used to determine if they can afford to continue to pay their mortgage if interest rates rise - by between 0.75 and 1.25 percentage points Nationwide has announced a major change to its mortgage affordability calculation from today. The high street lender has reduced its stress rates by between 0.75 and 1.25 percentage points. A stress test is used to determine whether a borrower can afford to continue to pay their mortgage if interest rates rise. This is normally set at a certain percentage point above the lender's standard variable rate (SVR). Nationwide says the change means borrowers will be able to borrow £28,000 more on average from today. It applies to first-time buyers - who can also benefit from the Helping Hand mortgage, which lets eligible applicants borrow up to six times their income - as well as home movers fixing their deal for at least five years. The largest boost to the borrowing amount is expected on remortgages where there is no additional borrowing. Nationwide says these fall outside the flow limit and are therefore unlikely to be capped at 4.5 times income. Nationwide estimates that a first-time buyer using the Helping Hand mortgage and with a £55,000 salary will see the maximum amount they can borrow jump from £304,200 to £330,000. Someone moving home with an income of £75,000 will be able to borrow £336,800, up from £307,000, while those who are remortgaging on a £45,000 salary will be able to borrow up to £278,100, up from £235,500. Henry Jordan, Nationwide's Director of Home, said: 'Affordability remains a key challenge and this change, along with our well-established and popular Helping Hand proposition, shows we're serious about tackling it. 'Whilst the FCA's clarification on affordability stress rates could support increased levels of home ownership, the Bank of England's flow limit dampens its potential impact. 'That's why Nationwide continues to call for a review of the 15% limit, so that we, and other lenders, can help more people access the long-term benefits of home ownership.' Santander was the first major lender to reduce its stress test rates and said it means someone applying for a residential mortgage can now borrow between £10,000 to £35,000 more, depending on their individual circumstances. HSBC also followed suit, and said 20,000 more customers are able to get a mortgage, alongside being able to borrow larger amounts. The average increase in offer for first-time buyers will be £39,000. Lloyds Banking Group has also reduced the stress rates used in its standard affordability calculation and on its five-year fixed mortgages. and said it could mean someone applying for a mortgage could borrow £38,000 more. This includes Lloyds, Halifax, Bank of Scotland and BM Solutions.
Boston Globe
06-05-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
How a mobile phone game is helping teens deal with the trauma of war
The idea for the app came out of work by a team of psychologists and psychotherapists in Norway who developed a paper-based game they used to role-play with struggling teens in that country. In Advertisement 'We found very good results with an analog version of this game,' said clinical psychologist Solfrid Raknes, who helped design the game. That got the team thinking 'making it into an interactive [mobile] game would really be more scalable.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up A core principle of The Helping Hand game includes scenarios such as talking with a fictional friend who is depressed or having trouble with a parent. The game offers multiple conversational prompts the player can choose from to help the fictional friend and learn which responses are most effective. Advertisement A screenshot from Helping Hand, a mobile game developed in Boston based on trauma-reduction techniques from psychology. Courtesy of Attensi The firm has created versions in Arabic for refugee kids from Syria as well as a Ukrainian version for adolescents in that war zone. Attensi's scenario writers were used to learning about business situations but had to reach a higher level of empathy to construct the Helping Hand game, said Huw Newton-Hill, general manager of North America at the firm. 'A lot of our writers did actually travel to go experience some of what they were writing about, but there's no way they can really internalize that experience,' Newton-Hill said. 'People who can bring a story to life, bring characters to life, within such difficult contexts [are] really powerful.' Another challenge making the game was ensuring it could run on older, slower phones and tablets in use among the kids in refugee communities, Newton-Hill said. The team had to shrink the size of files while making sure the characters in the game still came across as realistic. All of the findings so far show that the mobile game is even more effective than the old paper versions, Raknes said. With Syrian refugee kids, 85 percent said they were feeling symptoms of anxiety and depression before playing. After 10 sessions of the game, only 15 percent reported such signs. 'For adolescents today, it is easier to create engagement from an interactive game than from handing out a booklet and asking them to read something,' she said. Aaron Pressman can be reached at
The Independent
23-04-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Mortgage innovation and affordability changes are huge positives - here's what it means for homebuyers
Halifax has recently announced that the stress rates used in their affordability calculation will be lowered. Typical customers will see an increase of around 13 per cent in the maximum amount they can borrow - potentially around £38,000 more, which is clearly good news for future homebuyers. One of the hurdles of getting on the property ladder after you've saved (or been gifted) a deposit is passing a lender's affordability assessment, which can be a challenge. However, recent 'encouragement' from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has led to lenders like Halifax relaxing these assessments and opening up possibilities to more borrowers. Here we analyse what lenders are doing and what it means for you as a homebuyer - as well as clarifying what an affordability assessment actually is! Affordability assessments 101 When you're borrowing hundreds of thousands of pounds, a lender wants some comfort that you'll be able to make your monthly repayments, now and in the future. As part of your application, they'll review your credit history to get an idea of the type of borrower you are. Missing payments, exceeding credit card limits and defaulting on agreements are behaviours that can restrict your access to products. Responsible financial behaviour is always important. To get an understanding of your current financial situation, lenders will want to see evidence of your income and expenses, your payslips and bank statements. They'll also want to understand any ongoing financial commitments you have like loans, credit card balances and childcare costs. Then they'll perform various 'stress tests' to see if repayments are manageable in different scenarios - such as interest rates unexpectedly rising higher. 'Affordability assessments vary between lenders. The focus goes deeper than just your headline salary and looks at your overall financial resilience' advises Sonya Matharu, founder and adviser at The Mortgage Atelier. The stricter the assessment, the more challenging it will be to borrow the amount you want. But now we're starting to see some lenders make changes. Incoming changes Santander recently reduced its mortgage affordability stress test rate which, according to them, will mean homebuyers can borrow between £10,000 and £35,000 more than previously, depending on their earnings and other factors. Miranda Hickey, mortgage adviser at Meet Margo, shares that 'Atom Bank now consider up to 6x salary on 'prime' and 'near prime' mortgages, which applies to customers with light adverse credit history. Additionally, Precise Mortgages has recently announced improved affordability on their 2- and 3-year fixed rates.' This is worth noting if you've had some credit blips in the past and you think that a mortgage is out of reach because of them. We've also seen Nationwide change their criteria and lower rates significantly. 'They've dropped the minimum annual income for sole applicant to £35k on their Helping Hand product which, if you fix for five years, gives you six times income as a first time buyer,' advises Joanna Connolly, broker at The Mortgage Mum. 'April Mortgages, which is relatively new to the market, has introduced 25 per cent more affordability on their products.' Atom Bank, Precise Mortgages and April Mortgages are lesser-known lenders and you can only access their products through a mortgage broker - but they could have the right product for you, so don't immediately discount them. Innovation in the mortgage market We're starting to see new types of mortgage products too. There are now those that help you reduce the mortgage that you need, like Gen H's New Build Boost scheme for anyone buying a new property through Persimmon homes. With this scheme, you can put down a 5 per cent deposit, get an 80 per cent LTV mortgage and Gen H will give you a 15 per cent equity loan - making it more possible that you'll pass an affordability assessment. Products exist too that allow you to purchase a property with just a one per cent deposit, such as Accord's mortgage product for houses and flats worth up to £500,000 - with just a £5,000 deposit. It's even possible to buy a home with no deposit at all. Unsurprisingly, with no deposit your options are limited. One lender stepping into that gap is Skipton Building Society with their Track Record mortgage product. 'This is for those who are able to show a track record of affording their full rent but whom haven't been able to save for a deposit' advises Annie Ryan, mortgage and protection advisor at Barfield Financial. For this type of product, the risk of negative equity - borrowing more than the property is worth - is high and needs to be at the forefront of your mind, to start overpaying as soon as possible. Future outlook It seems that lenders are trying to do what their name They're changing affordability assessments and thinking creatively about how they can lend responsibly, but also lend more. If you'll be applying for a mortgage in the next couple of years, it's important to get the right information early on. Trying to navigate the mortgage market isn't easy. Having an advisor on your side, testing out what's possible for you even before you're ready to apply, can be priceless. It'll also save you setting your heart on a property outside of your reach - or advising you when matters might have changed in your favour. Ms Matharu shares one such incident as a final reminder that change works both ways: 'When I re-ran the numbers for a client using the exact same data from October 2024, their borrowing potential changed dramatically. Same profile. Same income. A completely different outcome. It's a reminder that borrowing potential isn't fixed.'
Chicago Tribune
01-04-2025
- Health
- Chicago Tribune
Healthy Aging event offers resources, info to help people ‘define their future'
There's no stopping the advance of time, but one does have choices when dealing with the effects of getting older. Now, a new La Grange area nonprofit, OptWell, is on hand to help educate people with approaches to healthy aging. The group will host a free presentation and resource fair called Healthy Aging, focusing on educating people of all ages with techniques and strategies for an active, healthy lifestyle as they grow older. 'All of our events are social,' Kris Lonsway, founder of OptWell, said. 'So we have a resource fair component.' The Healthy Aging fair will be from 5:30 to 8 p.m. April 10 at Helping Hand, 9649 W. 55th St., Countryside. Among the presentations offered are sessions on Alzheimer's and dementia, the positive impact of movement on brain health, community-based services, financial preparedness for the unexpected and building resilience with lifestyle habits and family strategies. Over 20 organizations will be on hand, including the Alzheimer's Association, Aging Care Connections, Edward Jones, Helping Hand, Just Lift Fitness, and several other home health care and senior living organizations. Area restaurants are also pitching with tasty treats. 'We have so many local, amazing restaurants that are donating so many healthy appetizers and healthy salads for this event,' Lonsway said. 'So the food for this event will be incredible.' Participating La Grange area establishments include Prasino, Mana, Blackberry Market, fourteensixteen, Hillgrove Tap and Rafferty's. The Healthy Aging fair is free, although people have to register at It's not just for older people, Lonsway said. The objective is to help people understand what they need to do today that will help support their health and wellness for the rest of their lives. Lonsway talked about the five healthy habits that OptWell wanted seniors to incorporate into their daily lives. 'Those five are to eat well, get moving, mental wellness, quality sleep, and being social,' she said. 'They're pretty self-explanatory. With sleep, there's so much research saying we need 7 to 8 hours a night.' Lonsway, 55, is a competitive tennis player, but suffers from sleep apnea and is very open about it. 'I'm trying to help people reduce stigma about things that get in the way of them being healthy,' she said. 'If people are embarrassed to go get a sleep study, or if they're hesitant to wear a CPAP (apnea sleep mask) or if they're hesitant about mental wellness … we're doing this together as a community to reduce stigma.' Lonsway is an organizational psychologist specializing in motivational speaking and executive coaching, who after grad school at the University of Illinois had a career consulting global organizations. Her life took a turn when one of her sons was diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum and her other son was showing signs of developmental delay, and her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. She began to intently study autism and Alzheimer's to care for her sons and help manage her mother's care. Lonsway's experiences are shared with fitness instructor Halle McCormick, whose mother also died of Alzheimer's. McCormick is on OptWell's advisory committee and will be speaking at Healthy Aging. 'Movement has always been very important to me and instrumental in my life,' she said. 'And I'm trying to be instrumental in the lives of many others, and to understand the power of movement for not only physical health but mental health as well.' With other members of her family suffering from Alzheimer's, McCormick, like Lonsway, immersed herself in anything she could learn on the subject. 'I became an Alzheimer's fitness specialist,' she said. 'I wanted to take my love of movement, my love of fitness and fitness education to create a specialty.' McCormick's goal is to make people understand lifestyle habits that people can use to 'prevent, push off, or possibly reverse Alzheimer's.' Her talk April 10 will include her family history, and the class she developed, called Brain Body Fitness. 'Essentially what I do is incorporate movement patterns with a brain challenge at the same time and that really enhances blood flow to the brain,' McCormick said. 'A lot of research shows that if you do a movement or exercise with a brain challenge, it essentially improves brain health.' McCormick stressed that there is hope for people whose families have a history of Alzheimer's or dementia. 'Their genes don't have to define their future,' she said.
