Thousands of vulnerable pensioners are being stripped of care services -- which are vital to help them stay in their own homes -- because of town hall cuts.

More than four in five councils are now denying free care – such as home helps, meals on wheels and the installation of stair lifts – to all but those with the most serious health needs.

This means that elderly people with crippling disabilities are being left to fend for themselves, even though they need help to wash, dress and go to the lavatory.

Many are having to dig into their savings to pay for private care, while others needlessly end up in hospital or residential care because councils have abandoned them.

Denying help

Critics say that by restricting home care to those who only meet the highest needs criteria, local authorities are denying many older people the help they need to live dignified and independent lives.

They say that councils should be cutting staff and the pay of chief executives rather than making residents suffer by slashing front-line services.

Some 300,000 people in the UK are in receipt of home help from councils but thousands could lose it.

Staff establish whether pensioners’ needs are ‘critical’, ‘substantial’, ‘moderate’ or ‘low’, and town halls decide every year which groups are eligible for free help.

Exclusive research by Age UK found that 82 per cent of English councils provide care only to those described as having ‘substantial’ or ‘critical’ needs.

Reform

Ministers have promised reform of the care system to help stamp out the postcode lottery in services for the elderly, but Age UK is worried that the issue is being kicked into the long grass.

In the past year alone, the number of councils restricting help to those with substantial or critical needs has risen from 114 to 124, an increase of nine per cent.

The number of councils helping those with moderate needs has more than halved over the past seven years; while the number helping those with ‘low’ needs has fallen from 11 to just three. Councils will usually only pay for help if people have assets worth less than £23,500.

Michelle Mitchell, Age UK’s charity director, said: “These figures are worrying as they illustrate the trend for local authorities to tighten their eligibility criteria so that increasingly it is only those with high care needs who get the support they need in their homes.

“Many now do not get the care that they would have previously been entitled to.”