Pensioners hit by new cutbacks

Thousands of elderly people across London are losing crucial home help because of council cuts.

An Evening Standard investigation has revealed that at least five boroughs are slashing the amount they spend on care for the elderly and disabled.

Chief targets are elderly people who get help with cleaning, shopping and collecting benefits. Critics say this is an unfair and false economy which will cost more in the long run if it leads to more people needing care in council residential homes.

Last month 108-year-old Alice Knight starved herself to death after being forced to move out of the Norwich care home she had lived in for seven years. The great-great grandmother went on hunger strike after being moved to another home.

The five boroughs - among the biggest spenders on elderly care in London - are Southwark, Camden, Hackney, Lambeth and Harrow. Their policy is being watched by other councils looking to make cuts.

Southwark is "reassessing" care of 2,750 people to address a £3.5 million hole in its social services budget. Charities fear 1,000 people could lose home care. Tony Lynes of the Pensioners' Action Group said: The policy is short-sighted. Home care helps people stay in their own homes. If it goes, it is much more likely they will have to go into residential care."

Ted Payne, 84, a retired road sweeper from Camberwell crippled by arthritis, gets help twice a week with housework, and contributes £3 a week of his pension for home care. "I couldn't keep the place up to scratch if they didn't come," he said. "Anything that requires bending down is impossible with my back."

Joyce Marley, 77, a cancer patient, had a home help after chemotherapy. She is to have more treatment and said: "When I was ill last time I couldn't do anything. I had a nurse to help me dress and home helpers to clean. I was told not to do any lifting or stretching so their help was invaluable. I don't know what will happen if I have to cope on my own."

Hackney, with a chronic cash crisis, provoked fury from residents last year when, to save £500,000 from a £10 million home care budget, it changed its eligibility criteria for old people needing home help, making it difficult for non-urgent cases to qualify. Hackney social services d i rector Mary Richardson prompted outrage when she said of the council's cuts: "Unfortunately, we all die anyway."

A union source at the town hall said two social services officers resigned because they couldn't bear the distress of old people who were told their home care was being cut.

Camden council, recently voted the best in Britain, claims it has been forced to make cuts because of the Government's refusal to pay the full cost of looking after asylum seekers. Old people are now being told to call on friends and neighbours for help.

Camden says it has spent more than £2.3 million of its reserves in the last three years on asylum seekers. Jane Held, director of social services, said the council will now only provide a domestic care service to "maintain life and health". It aims to reduce the number receiving care at home from 3,000 to 2,250 in the next three years.

Harrow has racked up the contribution paid by pensioners with more than £18,500 savings. Lilly Kahn, 81, disabled by a stroke four years ago and in warden-assisted housing, has a home help for cleaning, dressing, making the bed and other tasks. She used to pay £27 a week. She must now pay £81. A widow whose savings came from a clerical job, she can only afford reduced care at £36 a week.

Her daughter Barbara Del Olmo said: "The elderly are the people least able to protest about this. Often they don't even realise what's happening." Betty Arrol, director of Age Concern in Harrow, said: "When the consultation began there was a proposal to increase charges by about 1,000 per cent, which caused a huge protest." That figure was reduced. The council says the increase only brings charges into line with other local authorities,

In Lambeth, the new Liberal Democrat and Tory administration will today decide how to find £5.9 million social services savings. One option, to save £350,000, is to withdraw home help for housework, laundry and pension collection. Another is to scrap shopping collection and have supermarkets deliver direct to pensioners.

Carlie Newman of the Greater London Forum for the Elderly said: "This will put a bigger burden on relatives and close friends. They really can't take any more."

A survey by Help the Aged in May found four per cent fewer UK households receiving home care than the previous year. At the start of this year just under 400,000 were eligible. As councils seek to make cuts that figure is set to fall even further.