TOWN halls are planning to withdraw care services from hundreds of thousands of elderly and disabled people and to raise charges to keep council tax down this year.

Many councils are now considering raising charges for domiciliary care, which includes bathing, cleaning and dressing the elderly, disabled and infirm, preparing meals and shopping.

Finance officers across the country have been told to cut spending to keep council tax increases below 5 per cent to avoid being capped by John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister. The Times has learnt that authorities are planning to withdraw care from less dependent people altogether by changing the eligibility criteria for home and residential services. They are also planning to raise income by charging more for home care or providing a lower level of services.

Yesterday Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart, chairman of the Local Government Association, warned Phil Woolas, the Local Government Minister, that councils were now starting to “ration care” for the infirm and elderly by changing the eligibility criteria.

“People entitled to services last year will not get the care this year,” Sir Sandy told The Times after a meeting with Mr Woolas. “The picture emerging is a mixture of raising eligibility criteria for social care, charging more and making cuts. Services are being rationed.”

At a private meeting last week, leaders from counties in the South and the South East agreed to limit council tax increases to 4.5 to 5 per cent this April. But the council chiefs from Kent, Surrey, East Sussex, West Sussex and Hampshire said that they would have to cut services and staff, and raise charges for home care and residential homes.

West Sussex is proposing increased charges for home care for elderly and disabled people and restricted placements in residential homes.

Hampshire is planning to make £3.5 million of cuts in social services. Ken Thornber, leader of Hampshire County Council, said: “It is an excruciating decision but we might have to give people a lower level of care than we used to. We know we will be capped if we propose rises over 5 per cent.”

Surrey County Council is planning more than 700 job losses across the authority, and Kent has proposed more than 1,000. East Sussex is planning to end subsidised bus services and reduce library opening hours.

Council chiefs from the eastern regions have sent a letter warning Mr Prescott of the increasing costs of social services and the difficulty in balancing budgets. The letter, from the leaders of Suffolk, Bedfordshire, Cambridge, Essex, Hertfordshire and Norfolk, says that the grant settlement will not meet severe cost pressures in adult and children’s services.

Most counties in the South and East have been allocated minimum grant increases for 2006-07 as part of the Government’s plans to redistribute money to poorer areas in the North and the Midlands.

Their budgets have also been squeezed because of changes to borrowing rules for capital spending, which has meant that some councils have a real-terms cut in spending this year.

Social service budgets, which make up the bulk of council spending, are already under pressure because of spiralling costs related to demographic changes, medical advances and pay deals.

Anne Williams, co-chairwoman of the resources committee of the Association of Directors of Social Services, said that town halls across the country now faced similar pressures to those in the South and East.

Some are considering changing eligibility for services so that only the most dependent people — the very elderly or seriously disabled children and adults — will be entitled to social care.

Help the Aged said that increased charges would mean a “triple whammy” for elderly people already facing higher fuel bills and council tax bills.

WHAT THE SERVICES COST

• Charges for home care services are means-tested and vary hugely throughout the country
• Most councils set a maximum weekly charge ranging from £22 to £400. Hourly charges average £9 but vary from £3.50 to £15.50
• People are exempt from paying the charges if they are on or just above income support levels
• There are four grades of eligibility, ranging from low to high dependency. Some councils are now only helping higher dependency cases:

  1 Low when a person is unable to carry out one or two personal care or domestic tasks such as bathing or cooking
  2 Moderate when a person is unable to carry out several personal or domestic tasks
  3 Substantial the person has only partial control over the immediate environment; abuse or neglect has occurred; the person cannot carry out any major domestic or personal task
  4 Critical when life is or will be threatened; significant health problems have developed, there is little or no control over the immediate environment
  
  HOW COUNCIL TAX HAS RISEN IN THE PAST FIVE YEARS
  
  2001-02: 6.4%
  2002-03: 8.3%
  2003-04: 12.9%
  2004-05: 5.9%
  2005-06: 4.1%

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