Charlene Sweeney

The financial penalty of free care for the elderly in Scotland was laid bare yesterday as new figures revealed that the cost of providing services for pensioners in their own homes has soared by almost £100million in four years.

The statistics - representing a rise of 74 per cent - appeared to confirm warnings from Westminster that the flagship devolution policy, implemented in July 2002 by the previous Labour/Lib Dem coalition, would lead to a massive bill for taxpayers.

The figures, published by the Scottish government, showed that 52,000 pensioners now receive free care, compared with 41,370 five years ago. Consequently, local authorities are now spending more than £1billion on services for the elderly - a rise of 20 per cent since 2003-04.

The most significant growth in expenditure has been on providing free personal care for older people living in their own homes, which rose to £224million last year. This compares with £129million in 2003-04 and amounts to a 74 per cent increase, although councils were already spending an estimated £64million on personal care services before the policy was introduced.

About 42,400 elderly people received free personal care at home across Scotland in 2007-08, a rise of 28 per cent over the previous four years when the figure stood at 33,030. Glasgow City Council is shouldering the greatest financial burden, spending £39million last year on providing the service, a threefold rise compared with the £12.5million cost of the service in 2003-04.

Edinburgh City Council's expenditure on free personal care at home has more than doubled from £8.5million four years ago to £18.5million last year. Together, Scotland's two largest local authorities account for almost a quarter of the total spent by the country's 32 councils on free personal care for the elderly at home.

Yesterday's report suggested that the huge jump in costs for personal care at home was due to factors including a shift towards providing more home care services, the introduction of equal pay provision contributing to higher wage bills for councils, and the reimbursement of charges for meal preparation in some local authority areas after some wrongly charged for the service.

The report also pointed out that the number of pensioners in residential care dropped slightly to 31,440, compared with 31,890 recorded five years ago. However, the number of self-funding residents - those in private care homes - who receive free personal care has risen by 15 per cent from 8,340 in 2003-04 to 9,600 this year.

Councils spent more than £1 billion on services for older people in 2006-07, compared to £853 million in 2003 to 2004, amounting to an increase of 20 per cent. In 2003-04, about a quarter of the overall spending was on free personal and nursing care, but this rose to 31 per cent in 2006-07, mostly because of the rise in self-funders in care homes and the increasing proportion of home care clients needing personal care services.

Introduced in Scotland in July 2002. free personal care has been enormously popular. However, it has caused friction at Westminster as there have been criticisms that the policy has not been implemented in England.

The massive costs associated with free care have also raised concerns. In April a five-year review by Lord Sutherland of Houndwood, the architect of the original policy, called for an additional £40million from the Scottish government to cover a shortfall in funding and demanded greater consistency in implementation. The SNP Administration has since agreed to provide more funding for free care.

Lindsay Scott, a spokesman for Age Concern Scotland, defended the rising costs of the policy yesterday.

“The figures should not fuel any concern,” he said. “The amount councils spend is minuscule compared with their overall budgets. Obviously there is a reason for the increase, especially for personal care at home. The alternative would be providing the same service in a care setting, such as a hospital or care home, which would be much more expensive.

“Councils were charging people illegally for their personal care by keeping people on waiting lists and they are not allowed to do that now. They also have to reimburse meal costs.”

Mr Scott said the figures pointed to the case for more debate about the cost of looking after the elderly. Lord Sutherland has already projected that free care costs could surge to £813 million by 2031, when Scotland will have 1.3 million pensioners.

“We have an ageing population where there are now more over-60s than under-16s,” Mr Scott said. “The most important thing now is that we set aside money for implementing the policy in the future.”

A spokeswoman for the SNP administration said that it would be working with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities to effect Lord Sutherland's recommendations.

Times Recommends

• The real-life adventures of Tintin the spy
• Our universities face a radical upheaval
• Doctor Who