|
|
 |
| |
Bank account checks have Stasi overtones
• LAST weekend I went to see the recently- released film The Lives of Others about the Stasi, the former East German secret service (Snoopers’ charter, April 26).
Reading the article about council officials trawling through people’s bank accounts made me wonder if Camden’s Lib Dem council was now employing former Stasi officers to do social services charges assessments.
The council may well have recruited from that source as it seems that four extra posts are being created to do this snooping.
Arguing that people should pay if they can afford it is all very well, but, against an inflation rate of about three per cent, non-residential care charges go up by 13 per cent and some charges are being raised by more than 14 per cent.
We must remember that most of the people affected are elderly and vulnerable and the kind of intrusive questioning reported seems anything but sympathetic and appropriate for that group of people. I hope that the bank details are being properly obtained and not extracted in some underhand way.
Hoping that increased benefits take-up is going to offset the problem for some people also rings hollow when we see how Welfare Rights and Citizens Advice Bureau are being treated by the council. They will not have the resources to help additional clients.
The question I’d like to have answered is: where was all this in the Lib Dems’ election manifesto last year?
PHIL HINGLEY
Burghley Road, NW5
• I AM shocked and appalled at the Lib Dem council’s callous and indifferent attitude to the elderly and disabled in Camden.
Plans for council investigators to riffle through these people’s personal documents are clearly disproportionate to the money they plan to recoup from them.
Moreover, this squeeze comes within weeks of the closure of youth services and nurseries across the borough.
Yet another sign of the Lib Dems’ willingness to persecute vulnerable and needy local people who deserve more.
DR NEIL GOULBOURNE GP
Adelaide Medical Centre NW3
• THE increased care charge Ray Adamson complains of only applies to those with £30,000 in the bank.
He fears that they are “going to take all my money”. With respect, Ray, you are 78 years old. As one old ’un to another, don’t wish for many more years. If your money runs down, there is a safety net to meet costs – means-tested.
As a former councillor, Ray will know Camden’s coffers are not bottomless and those who can should contribute to care costs.
Remember, too, that those pensioners nearer the breadline would regard £30,000 as a fortune, which is why many of us spend £1 a week on the Lottery.
CW ROSS
Gosfield Street, W1
• THE “snoopers’ charter” introduced by the new Lib Dem-Tory regime is extremely ill thought through.
The policy will yield little in terms of extra money for the council, as its own paperwork acknowledges, but the bureaucratic burden the assessment places on older people will put off many from applying for the help they need.
While dressing up their council tax policy as concern for older people, they have put up the cost of meals-on-wheels and introduced these extra care charges, hitting hard the budgets of the elderly and frail.
We did raise concerns about the impact of a whole range of changes on older people, but with such a slash-and-burn budget affecting so many different groups it was difficult to do justice to the impact of each individual cut.
We will continue to demand a more sensible approach to dealing with this sensitive issue and to monitor the impact on older residents.
CLLR GEETHIKA JAYATILAKA
Labour, King’s Cross ward
• I’M sure many readers shared my concern at the report of council plans to raid the bank accounts of pensioners and disabled people.
The proposal that officers pore over the detail of their outgoings will fill many older and vulnerable people with dread, especially those who don’t have family or friends to help them.
It sounds like the Lib Dems and Tories in the Town Hall are more concerned with squeezing every last penny out of elderly people than making sure they can enjoy some peace and dignity in their retirement.
To many, the exhaustive level of scrutiny being proposed will be an intrusion too far into very personal aspects of someone’s life.
I hope the council proceeds with more care and respect than your report suggests they will. After a lifetime’s contribution to our community, pensioners deserve this much at least.
MIKE KATZ
Prospective Labour candidate, Haverstock ward
Gladys Road, NW6
• SOMEONE once said that “for every action there is an equal and opposing reaction”. The “equal and opposing reaction” to the Lib Dems’ populist freezing of the council tax was obviously, as the New Journal has frequently pointed out, reduction in services, almost entirely to the most vulnerable sections of the community.
I would now like to ask those who voted for these tax cuts: which council service, from which you personally benefit, are you prepared to see cut to pay for this tax freeze?
MARGARET KING
Belsize Grove, NW3
q CONTRARY to what Tory social services lead councillor Martin Davies says, Labour did not support the Town Hall’s raid on pensioners’ income through the service charge hike announced in the budget.
Labour voted against the budget because it would hurt those who can’t afford to pay the most. We also continue to support council workers, service users and community groups in their struggle against the Town Hall’s cuts agenda.
One of our main complaints at the time was about service charge hikes like the 20 per cent increase for meals-on-wheels.
In particular, there was no analysis of how it would impact on the poorest people or those living in the poorest areas.
Sadly, as these cuts begin to bite, we see the reality of the new administration’s policy.
While the Tory-Lib Dems go on about their council tax freeze, the fact is that it only amounts to the price of a king-sized Mars Bar a week – in contrast to the £50 extra a week Ray Adamson has to pay. Where’s the social justice in that?
CLLR THEO BLACKWELL
Labour, Regent’s Park ward
|
 |
|
| |
|
|
|
