Windfall for pensioners
PENSIONERS in south west Scotland are to share a £2.2 million payout from council bosses within weeks after they were wrongly charged them for care services which should have been given for free.
Hundreds of elderly and vulnerable people living in Dumfries and Galloway were forced to pay-up for help with meals after council officials failed to implement official Scottish Executive policy.
The local authority's chief executive Phil Jones, has been asked to authorise immediate refunds of wrongly charged meal preparation fees as several claimants have already died from old age.
The request was made by council leader Ivor Hyslop who revealed the refunds date back to 2002 and has been backed by the Scottish Parliament's presiding officer Alex Fergusson, who has been pressing the council to stump up the refunds for almost two years.
At one stage, police received a formal complaint after a 100-year-old woman from New Luce, Wigtownshire, was charged £150 a month for years for her meals, totalling £5,400 over three years.
Confusion arose over wording of the the Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act 2002, which states that authorities are not to charge for aspects of social care including assisting with the preparation of food.
But because of 'ambiguity' over the issue Dumfries and Galloway Council continued charging for the service until December 2005.
Mr Fergusson, who was elected as a Conservative MSP, said that the council received a letter of clarification in September 2004 stating that preparation of food was not a chargeable service but it took a further 15 months to stop the charges.
In January -before a new council was elected in the May 3 poll - the previous administration set aside £1.5 million for the refunds. Former councillors also agreed that a compensation scheme be devised and arrangements made for people to claim.
But councillor Hsylop, who took over as leader after last month's election,is furious over the delay in settling compensation claims.
He said: "It is completely unacceptable that this mistake has taken so long to correct, and we are now determined to take the action necessary to do the right thing by our region's elderly.
"Any further delay is completely unacceptable and there must be immediate authorisation of refund payments to those charged in error."
Galloway and Upper Nithsdale MSP Mr Fergusson said: "This is the news that I have been waiting for more than 18 months for since I first raised this scandalous issue.
"I applaud the new administration in bringing this issue to the very top of the agenda and accepting that these refunds can no longer be delayed."
He added: "While I blame the previous Scottish Executive guidance for giving councils the loophole to make these illegal charges, I can only blame the previous council administration for not making immediate refunds once the situation became clear."
Chief executive Mr Jones said that he was arranging for a report to be brought forward to the social services committee recommending settlement of all claims.
He added £1.5 million has been set aside and a report detailing how the issue should be resolved legally and practically is being devised.
Mr Jones said: "This piece of work is ongoing and will be reported back to council as soon as it is completed."
He added in a statement in Holyrood last week recognising that some of the outstanding legislation issues need to be dealt with before local authorities could implement this policy in the most effective way.
"I am arranging for a report to be brought forward to the social services committee in this regard."
