4 days ago
Disabled people fear being "pushed out" of support service amidst £1,000 bills
People attending the Disability Resource Centre have just been told how much they will pay each week as part of a means-tested review
People who face £1,000 in backdated fees for the Disability Resource Centre (DRC) say they are being 'pushed out the back door' amidst plans to close it.
Vulnerable people who attend day services within the Paisley centre are being charged up to £90 per week to attend between fees and transport costs.
Members – who have just been told how much they will pay each week as part of a means-tested review – say Renfrewshire Council has backdated the fees to April, resulting in bills in excess of £1,000.
The fees have been issued weeks after Renfrewshire Health and Social Care Partnership announced it wants to close the Love Street facility as part of plans to plug a £19 million budget black hole.
The proposals form part of a redesign of adult services which, if approved, would see three central hubs created across the local authority area for people with learning and physical disabilities – meaning three current outlets will close.
Theresa Jensen, who is the vice chair of the DRC service users committee and secretary of the Renfrewshire Visually Impaired Forum, said she believed the fees were another means of reducing demand for services.
She told the Paisley Daily Express: 'They are implementing these charges at a time when they are trying to shut us down. It feels like they just want rid of us.
'There are people from the centre who are not sleeping, they are not eating, another has taken to his bed. They have been so worried about the closure and now it is these backdated fees. Some people are afraid to come in now because of the charges.
'They have been trying to push us out the front door and now they are pushing us out the back door.'
Renfrewshire councillors approved proposals to introduce fees for a number of social care services for adults at a meeting in February.
They agreed that anyone with an income in excess of £156 per week would be required to pay a contribution towards non-residential supports, specifically day centres. This was to be between £11.40 and a maximum of £70.50 per week based on a person's ability to pay.
For the vast majority of people who attend the centre, the contribution would come from their the Scottish Disability Payment and benefits.
The local authority vowed to ensure those who had an income of less than £156 a week would still be able to attend for free.
However, Theresa, from Erskine, says members of the DRC were not notified of any fees or what they would be required to pay for until many months later.
Explaining they vary widely, she said she would like to see the process for determining individual fees reviewed.
'The council say we were notified of the charges but if there was no notification, we didn't get it,' she said. 'We were asked as part of a feedback form if we would be happy to make a contribution to the centre but that was it; there was no mention if that was £5 a week or £90. We just didn't know, so to issue those fees to disabled people like that is, I believe, below the belt.
'I think the backdated fees should be dropped, no one signed anything, no one told us what the fees would be so why should we now be asked to pay £1,000 for something we didn't agree to?'
Renfrewshire Counci l has, however, insisted it wrote to service users of the Disability Resource Centre and the other day care users notifying them of the introduction of fees in March.
The local authority said it then conducted a financial assessment on each individual before determining the amount they should pay each week.
That figure was based on what the Department of Work and Pensions believes a person can live on, plus an additional 25 per cent on the basis that disabled people pay more in day-to-day living costs. It also invited people to outline their additional "disability expenditure" in order to ensure it was factored into the financial assessment.
A spokesperson said: "The charging letters issued following the financial assessment explain that payment plans are an option [to pay the back-dated fees] and provides contact details for the team to assist with this process."
The council also advised that anyone in financial difficulty can contact its Advice Works department for support and further that fees can be amended should people outline additional "disability expenditure". People should call 0300 300 0211 for support.
