8:41am Friday 29th January 2010
HAMPSHIRE council bosses have attacked plans for free home care for the neediest of old people as unaffordable.
Gordon Brown has promised to improve services for those most in need regardless of income or savings if a fourth Labour Government is elected.
Leader of the Conservative county council Councillor Ken Thornber said the Personal Care At Home bill will place an “impossible burden on council taxpayers”.
Councillors are concerned the Government has under-estimated the amount of care needed and the numbers who will qualify.
They say social care budgets are already overstretched by an ageing population and other groups could lose out.
Under the plans put forward in the bill, people judged to be in “critical need” – basically those who can’t get out of bed, dress, feed or wash themselves – will get free home care regardless of wealth.
The current system is means tested, meaning in Hampshire about 60 per cent pay all or some of their own charges.
The scheme could cost the county an extra £20m a year at a time of predicted cuts in Government funding.
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