Nick Whyley, 47, was informed in February that his care package had been slashed from 14 hours a week to two. Mr Whyley, from Southsea, is blind and for ten years had been given 14 hours of care from Portsmouth council to help with cooking, laundry, housework and correspondence. “It worked fantastically well. I had a budget to buy in my own care,” he said.

However, a new team took over his case. Without coming to see him or monitoring how he was coping at home they reduced his care. “It was a terrible shock,” he said. While he was contesting the cuts, Mr Whyley suffered a stroke and spent the summer in hospital. When he was discharged he was assured that the cuts would not take place until he had completed rehabilitation. However, in October he noticed that cash for his care bills had not been transferred to his account.

“I was told the money had been stopped. I have never had a proper explanation as to why the original decision to cut the amount of care was taken, apart from comments like ‘our budget has been cut’ or ‘we don’t do this any more’.

“Well, I cannot just decide to not be blind any more,” he said.

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