Times are tough due to the cost of living, vulnerable people need some financial support yet councils are ignoring this. East Renfrewshire have been threatening to bring in social care charges.
This is where they will count people's adult disability payment and universal credit as disposable income, then make people pay out from the money they get from the council, that is considered social care.
This disproportionately affects people with learning disabilities. 70% of the money will come from people in this category. Means tested £20 per hour fees for non residents care can be introduced from July after receiving the backing of the cabinet.
This will affect about 500 families in this area council alone, there has been widespread opposition from parents and carers with more than 10,000 people signing a petition calling for this to be dropped.
The IJB is a partnership between the council and the NHS which runs health and social care services recommended the new charges as it faced a reported budget gap of around £7 million for 2025/26.
Sadly this is the picture across the country, East Renfrewshire is the last of six authorities in the greater Glasgow and Clyde area to introduce charging for non residential care.
Only Inverclyde at 25% will have the lower cut backs, the councillors who are making these decisions don't know how big of impact to not only people with a disability , but their families too.
Most working people can go home at night , carers do not get that chance to do this.
I would urge the councillors to walk in the footsteps of the carer ,see how difficult it is and then they will find out the impact of taking money away from the people who desperately need it.
East Renfrewshire was considered a done deal, but local campaign groups managed to get the decision delayed until last week. 4 members of the council passed it , however five SNP councillors asked for it to go to the full council. This will happen on the 26th February
Social care charges have been in other councils since 2019. The SNP promised to stop the care charges as part of its manifesto. But it still hasn't done it. They have till next year.
People wrongly think it was part of the national care service or the LDAN bill but the promise to stop the charges came first
"I need 24 hour support to live my life. I am 19 and I don’t want to hang out with my mum all the time.The cuts will make it hard for me to get out of the house."
This is from Romi, a 19 years old student at Langside College studying History. She communicates using an eye gaze device and wrote this spelling with an alphabet flip book. She has Rett Syndrome.
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