Council attacked over 10pc rise in fees for vulnerable residents

THOUSANDS of North Yorkshire’s most vulnerable residents have had inflation-busting price rises imposed on vital care services to support them in their homes.

The decision by North Yorkshire County Council to increase charges by 10 per cent for those who pay for Community Services has been slammed by Liberal Democrats at County Hall.

County Council Liberal Democrat Leader Bill Hoult said: “The decision by the Tories to increase charges by four times the rate of inflation is just unacceptable, particularly following the 2.94 per cent council tax rise.”

The increases cover meals, transport, day care and laundry services as well as personal care. They are outlined in a report, Fees and Charges for Community Care Services 2010-11, which has already been approved by the Tory leaders.

Coun Hoult said the item had come in under the radar and it was too late to call the matter in to the Scrutiny Committee when the scale of what had been agreed became clear.

He added:“Like the extra snow tax on the rates these increases pay scant regard to the fact that many of the frail and elderly people using the services are on fixed incomes. Many will be hard pressed to find the extra money needed in these difficult times.”

The report also states the new charges have largely been increased by ten per cent “given consideration of future plans which may entail people being expected to pay the full cost of services, as opposed to the current subsidised fees”.

Coun Hoult said: “That is even more worrying.”

He said better-off pensioners would also suffer because a maximum weekly charge cap had now been removed.

The county council provides support to 11,000 adults in the community, the number of which rises year by year.

It also has to support 2,000 adults in residential care and 4,000 carers and it supervises 3,000 direct payments each year.

The council say the services are currently very heavily subsidised and this is a step toward reflecting the true cost of delivery. For example the cost of a two-course meal had increased by 25 pence to 2.75.

Derek Law, Corporate Director for the County Council’s Adult and Community Services said: “The county council is facing challenging times along with every other council in the country.

“We have an increasing demand for our services and in order to deliver services to as many people as possible in the county we have had to make a tough decision to increase the charges by a few pence on a small number of services.”

Tory Council leader John Weighell said: “It is very easy for the Liberal Democrats to say ‘you should not do this’ leading up to a general election.

“The fact remains the costs and demands for care for the elderly both in their own homes and elsewhere are enormous and the largest single pressure on the budget is the cost of more people coming into the system.”

This year in particular all local authorities have been under Government pressure to keep council tax precepts low because of the credit crunch and the recession it caused.

“But I do not think we would have looked to have raise the council tax any more anyway – because we are aware of the pressure on individual budgets,” Coun Weighell added.

As reported by the Yorkshire Post, the increase in charges comes against a background of a 40m financial crisis at County Hall which could put hundreds of jobs in jeopardy.

Concerns are growing that up to 500 posts could be lost from the local authority, which employs 24,000, during the next three years in the battle to balance an annual 900m budget.