Zahra Nazari has been living at Bolindergården elderly care home since 2022 as a temporary solution. In May 2023, she was promised her own apartment with her own staff group by a caseworker at a meeting, and this promise was recorded in writing. Despite this, Zahra Nazari still lives at the elderly care home nearly three years after moving in.
Zahra Nazari is the youngest resident at Bolindergården and shares common areas with much older neighbors, some with dementia. Her illness first manifested when she was 16 years old, with symptoms including sleeping for several days straight and needing to be woken for meals. She had seizures, and after a fall at home, she became bedridden and requires extensive daily assistance. Zahra Nazari vomits several times a day after meals, has difficulty speaking and moving, and no diagnosis has been established by healthcare providers.
The Justice Ombudsman is investigating the support and housing granted to Zahra Nazari by Eskilstuna municipality and how the case has been handled. The municipality has submitted a statement reviewing what has happened. Care and welfare head Johan Lindström states that living in an elderly care home is not a long-term solution but may be necessary for younger people in some cases. He says the period Zahra Nazari has spent at the elderly care home is unusually long, but there are special reasons for it.
I feel abandoned and driven to depression after my state pension payments stopped without warning while I was recovering from surgery abroad.
Saviola Nazari, Zahra's uncle, alleges that the municipality promised her something she did not receive and has failed in their commitment.
Marie Collins, 84, has received no state pension payments since November after health issues left her stranded in Cyprus. The DWP stopped Marie Collins' pension payments because they erroneously recorded her as deceased. Marie Collins is currently stuck in Cyprus after a two-week holiday in September turned into months abroad due to health issues that led to a no-fly order from doctors.
Marie Collins was admitted to hospital with a severe chest infection, later had a fall, and has undergone physiotherapy but still has limited use of her hand and 'no pressure' in her fingers, leaving her unable to write properly. Doctors provided letters confirming Marie Collins was not fit to fly, and both local and specialist medical evidence was sent to the DWP. At one stage, Marie Collins was unable to make international calls after running out of mobile credit, leaving WhatsApp as her only means of communication.
I spent weeks and weeks trying to contact DWP offices by phone, often waiting on hold for hours before being cut off, and felt I was sent in circles.
Marie Collins asked her niece in Yorkshire to intervene, but the DWP said it could not speak to her niece without power of attorney. Marie Collins arranged power of attorney paperwork and sent it by recorded delivery in early January, with tracking confirming arrival, but the DWP later said it had no record of it. In mid-January, after intervention from the British Consulate in Cyprus, Marie Collins was told she needed to complete a new 12-page state pension form, and once received, her payments would be reinstated. Due to her hand injury, Marie Collins struggled to fill in and sign the paperwork, getting help to do so.
The completed form was sent on January 23 and tracked as delivered six days later, but as of early March, no payments have resumed. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been repeatedly contacted by Marie Collins, her niece, and the British Consulate in Cyprus, but her payments remain suspended.
A 94-year-old woman was left on the floor for five hours before an ambulance reached her, as shown on a BBC documentary about the UK ambulance service. The incident occurred while the NHS Yorkshire Ambulance Crew in Leeds were dealing with multiple emergencies, including a man threatening to jump out of a window and throw petrol on police. A 73-year-old grandmother with Alzheimer's died while paramedics filled out paperwork in a car park, after a GP and paramedics agreed not to transfer her to hospital.
My financial worries have affected my health, noting I weighed nine and a half stone when I arrived in Cyprus in September and now weigh less.
The GP and paramedics maintained that the decision not to hospitalize the 73-year-old was clinically appropriate and in her best interests.
A widow in Australia faced delays in receiving over £400,000 from her late husband's pensions with Prudential (M&G), with the funds only released after media intervention in March. Marie Collins is facing court action for unpaid council tax while stranded in Cyprus, which she disputes due to her age and disability. Zuzana Färber, 66, faces debts of nearly one million kronor after her housing association was plundered, forcing her to work indefinitely despite nearing retirement. Solvig Karlsson, 87, nearly had her pension benefits withdrawn after being incorrectly recorded as having 3.6 million kronor in income.
A 79-year-old woman in Ipswich was left without a landline for a month due to a fault, affecting her ability to contact family and access services. Openreach stated the fault was caused by water entering a cable and affected about 21 properties. Lisbet Persson faced mobility issues when the only working elevator in her building broke down, affecting her ability to shop with her rollator.
Demenssjuka Stina died outside an elderly care home in Laholm in 2017, with new cases reviving painful memories for her children.
Across these cases, critical questions remain unanswered.