Southampton City Council cuts to hit the elderly and disabled

They warned the budget proposals would lead to an increase in pensioner poverty and even more vulnerable residents would become lonely and isolated.

Conservative council leaders have revealed plans to plug a £14m budget hole by axing 203 jobs, cutting services, raising charges and a £9m efficiency drive.

It has emerged that Sembal House in Handel Terrace and Bedford House in Amoy Street, which regularly help around 220 adults with disabilities, will be the prime targets in £3m of social care cuts.

Under a day care review to save up to £800,000, about half the 220 adults with disabilities who seek advice, support and therapeutic activities will no longer be eligible and services at Bedford House will be axed.

More than 20 jobs will be lost.

Stanley Fitzgerald, chairman of the Southampton and District Spina Bifida Association whose members use the centres, said they were “vital”.

“It’s a respite for their parents and carers. The council just doesn’t seem to understand how important these day centres are. It will cause havoc and upset for everyone.”

Under the budget plans care charges are also set to rise for the better off in a bid to raise up to £250,000.

All disposable income will be taken into account in bill calculations, rather than 95 per cent, and the council will aim to recover the full cost of day care. It comes on top of winter fuel payment cuts.

The council was yesterday unable to detail how the elderly and disabled would be financially hit, but an impact assessment by council equality officers warned of an “increase in social isolation”.

Age Concern Southampton said it had already received a “significant increase” in calls from older people affected by previous cuts.

“As a result of all these (new) ‘cost-saving’ measures, even more people will become lonely and isolated and as a result suffer with emotional, mental and physical health issues. This in turn will mean rising costs to the NHS and greater demands being made on their already overstretched resources,” chief officer Anne Carty said.

She said increased care provision costs would be well beyond the means of most pensioners leading to “more poverty and hardship” and an expectation that charities and voluntary organisations will “pick up the pieces” was “naive to say the least”.

Councillor leader Royston Smith said the council had been overly generous in the past and could now only afford care for those that met the strict eligibility criteria of “critical” or “substantial”

need.