Anger at care cost increase for disabled people

Peter Zein is angry the council have increased the amount they charge him for care

Disabled people on benefits in Kent are angry that the county council has sharply increased charges for their care costs.

Peter Zein, who has cerebral palsy, has seen the amount he is charged per week more than quadruple.

The council now takes into account other benefits people receive when it means tests residents.

Kent County Council (KCC) cabinet member for adult social care Dan Watkins said the local authority is having to "take tough decisions" amid financial challenges.

'It's going to be bad'

The councillor responsible for KCC's budget told the BBC in August the council needed to find more than £87m of savings in its upcoming budget.

That's on top of savings of more than £1bn over the last 10 years.

KCC said it provided adult social care services to approximately 16,394 adult residents.

The vast majority, 15,806, have to contribute something towards their social care services, such as residential assistance or the support they receive in their own homes.

The amount people pay is means tested by the council.

KCC will now take into account other disability benefits such as the government's Personal Independence Payment (PIP) when assessing how much people should contribute to the cost of their care.

"It's going to be bad," said Mr Zein, fearing disabled people across the county would suffer because of the hike.

The amount he currently pays KCC towards his care is just over £11 a week, but that has now risen to £47.07 a week or more than £200 a month.

"I do understand it isn't easy, but I am angry," he said.

Bernadette John said she thought there had been a mistake when she learned her son's care costs would jump

When Bernadette John was told her son Nathan would see his contribution rise from £10.60 a week to more than £45 she said: "I thought they [the council] had got the figures wrong."

She said the benefits disabled people receive is to "cover the essentials of life and to lose £35 a week, it's going to have disastrous consequences".

Sophie Fournel, chief executive of charity Disability Assist, said that disabled people in the county don't have a strong voice.

"There are a lot of people not prepared to speak up out of fear that the little they do get will be cut," she told the BBC.

Ms Fournel urged the council not to look to disabled people to claw money back from "because these are people who really need it... and who really can't afford to lose the little that they do currently receive".

KCC's Mr Watkins said “unlike a number of other councils" the local authority had held off taking into account wider benefits under the 2014 Care Act.

He said the decision was "not taken lightly" and to help reduce the impact of the increase KCC had included a £900k budgetary contingency to help with increased disability related expenses.

“Faced with increasing demands for complex care, rising costs of care and a lack of adequate funding from central government, we are having to take tough decisions to make sure future essential services are sustainable," he added.

“These changes will create £3.84m of savings."

The new charges for some will be payable from 2 September.