Huge hikes forecast in adult day care costs (From The Bolton News)

Huge hikes forecast in adult day care costs

8:47am Friday 8th March 2013 in Local

THE cost of day care services for some vulnerable and elderly adults look set to double.

Council chiefs are expected to approve a raft of social care price rises when the cabinet meets on Monday.

Proposed increases include day care centre attendance from £10 to £15 from May, up to a maximum of £20 from April next year.

The move would affect all six of the council’s centres — Thicketford House and Firwood in Tonge Moor, the Winifred Kettle centre in Westhoughton, Alderbank in Kearsley and Horwich and Little Lever day centres. The centres provide a range of services from physical exercise, social events and personal care services, such as baths.

Plans also include rises in the cost of meal deliveries to people’s homes, luncheon clubs and day centres, as well as transport to and from day centres, with the price of both rising from £3 to £3.50 in May, and £4 next April.

The move is expected to save the council £200,000 as part of wider efforts to slash costs by more than £43 million over the next two years.

The basic state pension will rise by 2.5 per cent to £110.15 a week in the coming 2013-2014 tax year, a rise of £2.70 a week.

Affected services are heavily subsidised by the council, and even though users currently pay £10 to attend a day centre, the cost to the authority can be between £30 and £47 a day, while meals cost the council £6 and transport costs £8.70.

Stockport currently charges £4.50 for meals, Wigan charges £3.85, while Tameside charges £2.56.

Rochdale charges £7.50 to attend a day centre, while Salford charges £44.

Under government regulations, many elderly and vulnerable adults now have a “personal budget”, which they can spend on services of their choice, rather than money being paid directly to the council on their behalf.

The services are means tested and those on the lowest incomes will not be affected, but up to 127 people in Bolton are expected to be affected by the day care increases, 450 people by the meal prices rises, and 400 by the transport rises.

Bolton Council leader Cliff Morris said: “Because of the enormity of the cuts to spending we have to look at it, but we are still subsidising these clients heavily. We are trying to be as fair as we can.”