Council apologises for postponing end of care charges

A local authority has apologised for postponing the scrapping of all charges for care and support for disabled people in their own homes.

Tower Hamlets council, in east London, which is run by the Aspire party, led by former Labour politician Lutfur Rahman, had been set to become just the second council in England to abolish all such care charges from April this year.

But the council has now postponed the introduction of free care at home for a year.

A local disabled people’s organisation (DPO) has expressed regret at the delay and that it was forced to push the council into issuing an apology and a statement.

In its statement, the council said: “Over the next year, we will be continuing to work on plans to introduce free community care from April 2025, which will apply to people eligible for community care and support under the Care Act 2014.

“We know that some of our residents were expecting the updated charging policy to be in place from April 2024, and understand the longer timeline may have caused frustration, or have had an impact on people’s budgeting.

“We apologise for any disappointment and for the uncertainty this may have led to.

“We are committed to launching this groundbreaking policy and believe April 2025 is a realistic and achievable date for implementation.

“We would like to reassure those who access our care service that we do not anticipate the timeline changing, and we are on track to deliver our plans.”

Jack Gilbert, chief executive of the DPO Real, which is based in Tower Hamlets, said: “Real welcomes Tower Hamlets council’s apology for the change to the originally announced schedule, albeit seven weeks after it was due to come into effect.

“It is a shame that nobody seems to have even flagged it as an issue which might impact on the council’s reputation until we doggedly pursued it.

“At the first sign of a potential delay, we should have been told. Whilst it would have been disappointing, we would have helped.

“We still warmly welcome the unambiguous renewed commitment to implementing the removal of home-based individual charging for adult social care; this is a fundamental change for which we and DDPOs* across the UK have long campaigned.”

He advised any disabled people in the borough who have experienced “further unexpected hardship” due to the postponement to contact the council or Real’s advocacy services, including its our joint advice programme with Disability Law Service, which is now led by Real’s former chief executive, Mike Smith.

*Deaf and disabled people’s organisations

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