Lancashire County Council announces new weekly charges to elderly telecare service users
Lancashire County Council has decided to start charging for its telecare service, as of next year, after concluding that it could no longer afford to cover the annual costs, which is rising at a rate of about £1m a year.
Recently, the council proposed introducing a charge of £4 to £9 a week for its telecare service customers, so it can afford to pay the increasing costs of running the service.
Progress Lifeline currently provides over 16,000 people with an alarm unit, pendant, sensors and 24-hour monitoring on behalf of the council. If a user falls or becomes unwell, they simply press their pendant, which alerts the monitoring centre that ensures that the user receives the assistance they need from a family member or the mobile response team.
Lancashire County Council is the only local authority in the North West of England that currently offers this service free of charge, which will change from January 2023 when the council will introduce charges for telecare.
The Lancaster Guardian stated that Cabinet members who were involved in the decision had been told that some people had signed up for the service simply because it was free and that it did not serve a “genuinely preventative function” for them.
Graham Gooch, Conservative cabinet member for adult services, said that the service had been “enthusiastically taken up” across the county council area.
The service is available to anyone over 18 who is eligible, however, the majority of the users in Lancashire are over 65.
Councillor Gooch said that the system had developed two “fatal flaws”, claiming that the service is no longer affordable and due to the upcoming digitalisation of the nation’s telecoms infrastructure, the service needs a complete overhaul of the equipment that it relies on.
Users that decide to continue using the telecare service will need to pay a weekly fee. Those who drop the service will receive advice of alternative free monitoring systems that are available via other providers.
