‘Fairer deal’ on care charges

COUNCILLORS gave their backing to a new care charge plan which a social service boss says will bring a fairer deal for everyone in Oldham.

Director of Adult Social Services, Paul Cassidy, told Cabinet the main purpose of the changes were to make sure people who qualified for social care, claimed the benefits they were entitled too.

Those with the lowest income will not have to pay a charge, but people on higher incomes will have to pay higher charges, he said.

Mr Cassidy said the changes reflected the opinions of the people of Oldham who responded to a consultation exercise on the issue.

He said the feeling was that people who could afford to pay should pay, and that carers should continue to get support because they were making a valuable contribution to society.

Members gave the thumbs-up to the strategy which will claw back cash to support adult care services in Oldham, and were told there may yet be some tweeking to get it right.

Labelled the Fairer Charging policy, it scraps the current charging rules and brings in a new strategy whereby those with higher incomes or significant savings will be charged more.

The hope is that by getting people to increase their uptake of benefits, it will increase the council’s income by an estimated £1 million over the next three years, which will in turn be reinvested into the care budget.

Welcoming the changes, Councillor Phil Harrison, cabinet member for adult and social services, warned that unless more money was brought in, the only alternative would be to start looking at cutting care packages, a step he said the council did not want to have to consider.

The new care charges impose the same capital rules that are applied to residential care, which means anyone with savings above £23,250 would have to pay the full cost of their care.

A sliding scale means some savers may have to start paying more towards their social services care.