Category: Stop The Care Tax

Dear Councillor I am writing to ask for your help in reversing an unfair decision by Dumfries & Galloway Council earlier this year.  The effect of this are only coming to light now and causing great hardship to disabled people under the age of 65 throughout the area. On 29th February the Council approved a report which changed the income allowance that people under 65 could keep before paying charges. The Income Allowance for people under 65 went down from £177 to £132 per week while the Income Allowance for people over 65 went up from £177 to £195 per week. At the same time the tax rate that people paid on the extra income they had about the Income Allowance went up from 55% to 65%. The increase for…

Our ambition is for sustained public investment in the development of a modern, nationwide infrastructure of social care support. The social care support we envision will be an instrument of transformative social change. It will protect, promote and ensure human rights and tackle inequalities for disabled people and carers. We believe that this infrastructure will also play a critical role in building and sustaining Scotland’s social and economic prosperity. This infrastructure should facilitate the delivery of a statutory framework of common outcomes, underpinned by clear and consistent nationwide rights and entitlements. In order to reflect and adapt to the varied local contexts across Scotland, we believe the administration and delivery of this social care support should be a local matter, involving local government and other statutory and non-statutory agencies and…

In January, the Minister for Health, Wellbeing and Sport announced a  £6 million cash injection to raise the amount that older and disabled people were able to keep before paying care charges to  the same level as that  in England.  For about 15 years, disabled people under 65 in other parts of the UK have been significantly better off than those in Scotland, on average getting to keep £132 per week as well as income needed to meet any other Disability Related Expenditure. However it would seem that the Scottish Government cannot just tell local councils what to do.  In a number of areas, councils have decided to ignore this.  Angus, for example, decided to increase the threshold for over 60s but to freeze it for those under 60 (Report…

Hi.  My name is Andrew Doyle and I need your help to stop an unfair attack on the lives of disabled people, people with mental health conditions and other support needs in Dumfries and Galloway.   The local council has started to ask people who need social care to pay between £25 and £35 more per week for their support.   This is on top of any money people were paying last year so some people are now paying up to £70 per week for support out of nothing more than their ESA and disability benefits. We are really worried that many people will stop their support because of the cost and end up being at risk of needing far more help in the future when they get into crisis.…

Last week, Shona Robison, the Health Secretary made an announcement of £6 million for Scottish councils as long as it was used to reduce social care charges. We understand that this money has been proposed as an anti poverty measure which will see the Income Thresholds raised in a number of councils. This is the level of basic income that people have to have before they start paying charges. The Health Secretary has suggested that 900 people will stop paying all care charges and 13,000 will pay less. A quick sum tells us that each person will be about £8.30 a week better off. The £6 million is part of the additional £250 million that is being given to health boards to improve social care. Will it make a lot…

This chart uses Scottish Government statistics to show one consequence of government policy on social care charges. Rising Social Care Charges are linked to falling numbers of people getting the vital support that we need. There has been much talk about "demographic time bombs" and the "growing demands" of disabled people. Yet this charts show that in just a few years the number of people getting help has fallen by thousands. As one senior member of a local authority social work department put it to us - "care charges are part of demand management." However we have yet to hear anyone proclaim this policy a success. Perhaps this is something that is being kept quiet.

For over 5 years, LDAS has raised concerns about whether the COSLA figures for the amount of income collected in non-residential social care charges. For example, one local authority, Glasgow, claims to raise over £16 million annually. Yet the next nearest is South Lanarkshire with only a slightly smaller population but raising just £2 million. Our concerns that the Glasgow figure could not possibly be correct were raised with senior local authority finance people at both local and national level but nothing was done. New information received by the Learning Disability Alliance Scotland in the last few weeks shows that Glasgow’s self-directed support care management information software, CareFirst 6, wraps up individual contributions along with their Independent Living Fund monies and declares it as a single contribution from each client.…

The Petitions Committee considered the Stop the Care Tax petition again on Tuesday 8th of December. They were struck by the difference in figures presented by the government which said that the immediate costs of ending care charges was £55 million and the ongoing annual costs was £330 million and those by SACT which said that the ongoing costs were only £20-25 million and only an additional 4-5 million per year caused by extension of charging. The Committee agreed to write to the Scottish Government and Professor David Bell. We think this will be very interesting as we don't think that the Scottish Government's figures add up and we also think that despite the impression given in other evidence Professor David Bell has nothing to do with these figures. The…

New research by LDAS has discovered a serious error in the way social care charges are being calculated in Scotland's largest local authority.   For over 5 years, we have raised concerns about the veracity of COSLA figures for the amount of income collected in non-residential social care charges.    Glasgow claimed to raise over £16 million annually but the next nearest is South Lanarkshire with only a slightly smaller population but raising just £2 million.    Our concern that the Glasgow figure could not possibly be correct was raised with senior local authority finance people but nothing was done. New information we received in the last few weeks shows that Glasgow’s self-directed support care management information software, CareFirst 6, wraps up individual contributions along with their Independent Living Fund monies and declares it…

Social care is an equality and human rights issue and, therefore, should be free at the point of delivery.   But many disabled people pay large amounts for their care and the current system sees charging procedures differ considerably between local authorities. October saw the launch of a consultation on a private members bill to abolish all social care charges.  Siobhan MacMahon MSP wants your views on should there be a new law.  You can make your comments on this at siobhanmcmahon.org/endthecaretax  and you can also download some Easy Read material from our website to help. At the same time the Scottish Government might be making plans to change the social care charging system.  Cabinet Secretary Shona Robison spoke at a recent Petitions Committee and said They had a university…