A new deal for welfare
The Government announced a radical reform of the welfare state on Tuesday (January 24) with the publication of its welfare reform green paper: A new deal for welfare: Empowering people to work.
In setting out plans to achieve an 80 percent employment rate for people of working age, the paper proposes:
- reforming incapacity benefits
- a £360 million roll out of Pathways to Work across the country by 2008
- extending support to lone parents and older workers
- reforming housing benefit
- transforming support for people living in our cities, and
- delivering support to meet the needs of everyone
Our dog has gone missing
in South West (Aquitaine, Midi-Pyrénées)
Posted
Hi,
We seem to be a magnet in this area for people handing in or looking for their lost dogs - this is what we do when we are trying to find an owner:
1. Posters in all bars, bakeries and Post Offices (inside and outside).
2. We speak to the assistant in the Mairie and also put a poster up in the building & outside.
3. Posters in all local vets & speak to the receptionists in every vet's within 10 mile radius.
4. We contact the SPA and the gendarmes (faxing through a poster is especially appreciated by SPA).
5.We tell the postman (most important - the postman is your most useful resource) & ask for his help.
6. Finally, in the case of lost dogs we gather up as much help as possible and drive around calling for the dog...........especially late at night when it is quiet.
7. We post on ex-pat forums like this one- a long shot but always possible.
8. We telephone everyone in the area with an English name in the phone book (local to where dog was found only) & ask them to keep an eye out, give dog's description etc. Ditto with French friends in the vicinity.
The last time we were asked to track down a missing dog he was found at the home of some summer visitors who took the dog in because they felt "sorry for him" but did not have the common-sense to tell anyone they had found a dog - I have a feeling it was the postman who helped us with that one.
Good luck - keep trying, do everything you possibly can.