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New Survey Follow Up on Charging during COVID
Inclusion Scotland's brand new follow up survey on social care support went live on Friday and will be open until midday on Monday 27 July on Survey Monkey.
The social care support follow up survey concerns what has happened to people’s social care support since the start of the crisis, if they were involved in any decision making about changes made, and whether or not they are continuing to pay for support that has been cut.
You can also find easy read and plain text document versions for downloading or printing on our website, which people can fill in and email or print, fill in and send in to us at www.inclusionscotland.org/socialcaresupportsurvey.
The questions in this short survey have been put together with the help of a number of disability and disabled led organisations, including members of the Scotland against the Care Tax committee. Please take the time to complete this. Thank you!
Charging while cutting services during COVID
Inclusion Scotland’s recent survey (and other surveys will back this, including GDA’s) showed that at least 45% of the 800+ who responded in April had lost some or all of their social care support due to the COVID 19 crisis and emergency legislation. There’s been a huge impact on disabled people’s and carers’ mental wellbeing, and a lot of other therapeutic services had been simultaneously removed. Some people had had their entire package removed overnight as it was assumed family would take care of them, leading to loss of independent living as a result of moving into inaccessible housing.
Leaked Paper Shows Disabled People get only a quarter of what was promised in Franks Law
Disabled People Lose Out On Government Funding
Less Than 10% Of Frank’s Law Funding Goes To Help Disabled People
Today, Scotland Against the Care Tax is releasing an unseen document used in the Scottish Government’s forward planning for the introduction of ‘Frank’s Law’ – the extension of Free Personal Care to disabled people and people with long term conditions who are under 65.
It shows that, out of £30 million put aside by the Scottish Government, less than 10% (£2.3 million) will go to help disabled people who are hit hard by care charges.
The document titled “Estimated Cost Of Extending Free Personal Care” was used as part of the planning process for Frank’s Law. The Scottish Parliament Petitions Committee asked for this information but this document was not provided to them.
Frank’s Law was originally costed at about £11 million but had spiralled up to nearly £30 million without any clear explanation as to why.
The paper shows that now only £2.3 million will go towards the cost of Free Personal Care. The remaining balance of the money (over £27 million) will be used by local authorities to fund any additional demand for services, meet administration costs or simply contribute to the overall council budget.
Read more: Leaked Paper Shows Disabled People get only a quarter of what was promised in Franks Law
Our new Petitions Committee Submission
We are glad to inform you that Scotland Against the Care Tax (SACT) is now in a position to help the Cabinet Secretary meet the assurances she made on the 10th of January to the Petitions Committee.
Jeane Freeman: That is, partly, the critical bit; there are numbers and then there are assumptions and modelling. We will provide the committee with what we used.[1]
Attached to this is a paper with the detailed information on how the Scottish Government calculated the costs for the implementation of “Frank’s Law”, the extension of Free Personal Care to those under 65.
It was unfortunate that the Cabinet Secretary was not able to supply this to the Petitions Committee following her presentation, for it is a public document, circulated to all those who attend the relevant meetings and is quite easily accessible.
The following table from Page 1 of the attached document shows how the £30 million was decided upon. As the total of the costs could come to £29.2 million, we assume that the Scottish Government agreed to round upwards to smooth the introduction.
Councils failing to provide information
Scotland Against the Care Tax has become aware that some councils have been issuing care charge statements after April 1st without providing any explanation about how may hours of personal care and how many hours of non personal care they think people get. Without providing this explanation they are making a mockery of Frank's Law.
Under Section 2 paragraph 25 of the local authority guidance they are required to provide this breakdown
25. In preparation for the implementation of the extension of this policy, local authorities will need to inform supported people currently receiving care at home services about the level of personal care and non-personal care they receive.
If you are in this situation you need to immediately write or email your social worker or council finance department and ask for this breakdown.
Some councils would like to provide only a numerical breakdown of hours - x Hours of Personal Care and Y hours of Non Personal Care. This is not an adequate response as individuals must be put in a position to to make a fair assessment of the option open to them. So local authorities have to identify which tasks they are still planning to charge you for and how long they expect this task to last. This information will allow supported peopel to decide whether to accept the council's assessment, to challenge the assessment or to cancel that part of the council's services and to make other arrangements.
We have prepared two sample draft letters
First is if you have been provided with no information on the personal care split at all. Click Here
The second is if you have been provided with the hours breakdown but no information on what is included in each element. Click Here
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