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Ray Adamson in his year as mayor |
Snoopers’ charter
Cough up, disabled told, after bank details scanned
THE Town Hall was yesterday (Wednesday) accused of raiding the savings accounts of Camden’s elderly and most vulnerable residents by hitting them with stinging charges for lifeline services that have traditionally been free.
Finance investigators have begun trawling through the bank details of thousands of disabled and elderly residents, checking their spending habits and examining the size of pension and benefit payments.
The team of assessors is working to justify extra charges for care work.
More than 2,000 residents are due to take the test.
Critics said the demand on people’s savings was being used to help plug the holes in the council’s budget, stretched by a decision to freeze council tax.
The investigators, who have conducted a series of interviews with people with disabilities, have been dubbed ‘retirement snoopers’ for their no-holds-barred enquiries. They are examining how much the disabled spend on food, heating and even holidays.
So detailed is the research that the council has undertaken, some interviewees have been asked how much they spends each month replacing crockery broken in household accidents.
Council chiefs last night (Wednesday) said that the new charging process was part of a wider policy of making funding for care services fairer by asking for contributions from people who could afford to pay. Social services supremo Councillor Martin Davies said that Camden was not the only local authority introducing the charges.
But the scale of unrest surrounding the new fees was exposed by former mayor Ray Adamson, who told of his distress at having every aspect of his life investigated and his fear that his modest bank balance will be drained.
The retired Labour councillor is registered blind and has difficulty with mobility due to a stroke.
He said: “They are going to take all of my money. This is means-testing and I object. I have no choice but to pay. I can’t afford not to have the care services. It is like an extra tax for me, just because I have a disability.”
Mr Adamson, 78, is held in high affection as one of the most popular Camden mayors of recent times.
He lives in a one-bedroom council flat in the Waxham block in Mansfield Road, Gospel Oak.
With no relatives, he relies on daily visits from carers to help him get washed and for meals.
Mr Adamson, a former award-winning photographer whose prints are displayed at the Royal Free Hospital, said: “I’ve paid my taxes all my life. I don’t have much money. This is my retirement and I shouldn’t be worrying about them draining all my money away now. In Scotland, all of these services don’t have charges.”
Mr Adamson will have to pay more than £50 extra every week in charges.
Pat Stack, Camden Disability Camden (Disc), which campaigned against the charges when they were introduced earlier this year, said: “We have had a lot of people who have been. The assessment is intrusive and people have felt intimidated. There is a lot of worry about these charges.”
He said that disabled residents who lived on benefits would be just as adversely affected.
Mr Stack said: “It will still be part of people’s disposable income. I don’t see why if you have £80,000 and are not disabled, you get to keep your money and if you have £30,000 and you are disabled you have to give your money away. There is a danger that people will not go out as much and will become isolated.”
Labour’s deputy leader Councillor Theo Blackwell said: “We have had a lot of people coming into the surgeries worried about this. We would call on the council to look again at the threshold that has been set because it does seem that the charges are beginning to bite. It seems again that the council has just thought this up on the hoof, not really thinking about what it means for people with disabilities.”
Cllr Davies said that the charges were not related to the council’s drive to freeze tax.
He said that the Town Hall had employed an advocacy service to reassure residents during the assessment period.
“Neither Labour nor the Greens opposed these charges when we discussed the budget,” said Cllr Davies. “It has the support of the Labour government and MPs. It would be the reverse of a postcode lottery if you had to pay for these charges in Brent, Westminster and Islington but didn’t have to pay for them in Camden. It comes down to whether you think people who can afford to pay for these services should make contributions.”
Cllr Davies said that the assessments were likely to throw up unclaimed benefits that residents did not realise they were entitled to.
He added: “I can see why it might seem that asking about breaking crockery is intrusive but the questions are designed to find out particular disabilities and the expense that can be associated.”
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