‘Scrooge’ jibe over home care fee hike plans

Kent County Council has been accused of acting like Scrooge over plans to change the charging rules for those who receive social care in their own homes.

Social services chiefs have outlined steps to save money through changes to its charging policy – just a week after it learned it was to get an extra £26m this year from the government for adult care.

The changes include a plan to charge an unspecified arrangement fee for those who pay for their care because they have assets of more than £23,250 but ask KCC to arrange that care. Up until now, the council has made no charge for doing so.

Another proposal would involve changing the rules on the way the council treats the savings and assets of those who receive care, where the value of these is between £14,250 and £23,250.

At the moment, KCC makes a charge of £1 per week for every £500 between these amounts but will change that to £1 for every £250, saving the authority £300,000 a year. Social services chiefs say the move would bring the council in line with other authorities.

But Conservative county councillor Alan Marsh attacked the proposals, saying people would not understand why they faced increased charges when the government had announced a £2bn cash injection for care, of which the council would get £26m more this year.

“People will see it as Scrooge-like – a shortcut to making a few pounds out of the customer,” he told a meeting of KCC’s social care cabinet committee.

But Cllr Graham Gibbens, the cabinet member for adult care, said the county council was facing severe pressures in adult care as it strived to cope with rising numbers of elderly people needing care, adding: “I am sympathetic but some of the decisions we have had to take on the care budget have been very challenging.”