WHEELCHAIR-BOUND grandmother Ellen Cummings has received a Christmas greeting she didn't want to hear.

For the vital home help she's had for the past 13 years has been Santa packing after social services scrooges 'reassessed' her case.

Ellen, aged 55, who suffers from spinal injuries and multiple sclerosis, was told she will no longer receive any home help or time at her local day centre from tomorrow (Friday, Dec 19).

"It is a merry Christmas to me, definitely," said a devastated Ellen, who is cared for by husband Sam, 57, at their Draperfield home in Chorley.

Ellen has been restricted to a wheelchair since the mid-eighties and received help from carers with her housework for more than a decade.

She has also attended a day care centre three days a week during that time, but has now been told she will have to re-apply.

Ellen said: "The day care centre helps me to keep up my social life and meet people in similar situations as myself.

"My home help is really just to help me with the housework - nothing else.

"There's no way I can push a hoover in front of me or mop the bathroom floor.

"It would be ridiculous if all of this is cut. If my husband has to give up work to help me it's going to cost the Government more money than before because he'll have to be with me 24 hours a day."

Sam, a mechanic works from 7.30am to 6.30pm and is sometimes summoned on call-outs.

Ellen, who completed a wheelchair marathon from Southport to Hoghton Towers in aid of spinal injuries last year, revealed: "I didn't even know my day centre visits had been stopped until I telephoned them to find out."

She has written a letter of complaint to Prime Minister Tony Blair and is awaiting a reply.

A spokesman for a local carer's association, who wished to remain nameless, said: "This has come as a big shock to us.

"We have heard from a social worker that a lot more of this sort of thing will happen.

"Social Services use their own in-house carers who cost about twice as much as private carers to do exactly the same job."

Mike Derbyshire, head of purchasing for Lancashire Social Services, denied the home help had been axed due to cuts.

"We re-assess people from time to time, but we are certainly not cutting services," he said.

"We have a county council service for the disabled and use them before we go to the private sector. Clearly it's very difficult to compare both sectors services."

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