Elderly to get option to buy home care

At least 400,000 older people will be offered payments of up to £200 a week to buy help in the home, under a government scheme announced yesterday to keep pensioners out of hospitals and care homes.

Alan Milburn, the health secretary, said he would make it compulsory for local authorities to give older people a choice between provision of services and a cash grant that could be used to pay a relative or alternative home help.

The scheme was part of a plan to increase the social services budget for older people by £1bn by 2006 over and above the amount needed to keep pace with inflation and the gradual rise in numbers of pensioners needing support.

Mr Milburn said older people would be the main beneficiaries of a promise in the Budget to increase social services spending by 6% in real terms over the next four years.

About 250,000 would benefit from extra equipment to help them stay in their own homes, such as handrails, hoists and ramps. There would be an obligation on local authorities to assess older people's needs within a month and to deliver the necessary equipment in a week.

For the first time local authorities would be obliged to offer direct payments. Mr Milburn said: "Every older person assessed as being in need of care - whether for rehabilitation after a hip operation or for a bit of help with household chores - will be given the choice of receiving a service or receiving a cash payment to purchase care for themselves that better suits their individual needs."

Under current rules, a few younger disabled people get cash grants of up to £600 a week. Officials said it was unlikely that older people would qualify for so much, but payments could be worth "hundreds of pounds a week".

Other parts of the package included 30,000 extra intensive home care packages by 2006, 8,000 more places in intermediate care helping older people recover after a spell in hospital and 70,000 more rehabilitation packages.

There will be more support for people caring for a relative, including a doubling of carers grant to £185m by 2006, providing respite care and breaks to a further 136,000 carers.

Local authorities will be funded to provide an as yet unspecified increase in fees to care homes to halt an exodus of proprietors taking advantage of high property values. Ministers want to increase care home places funded by local authorities by 6,000 by 2006.

The government dropped a requirement that care homes meet minimum standards on room sizes and facilities. The standards would become "good practice to which all care homes should aspire", but no good home would be forced to close for failing to meet them.

Gail Elkington, care policy officer at Help the Aged, said the aims were principled, but it remained to be seen whether the money was being spread too thinly. "More funding is needed to provide preventive support for older people early on, rather than waiting until they need intensive community or nursing care," she said.

Diana Whitworth, chief executive of Carers UK, said the government had come up with "an imaginative, ambitious package" which should deliver positive changes for carers.