A DISABLED woman has hit out at moves by council leaders to introduce charges for home care.

Cumbria County Council, which currently provides free care to hundreds of sick, disabled and elderly people across the region, plans to introduce charges for the service in October this year.

Jean Simpson, 81, of Kendal, who receives nine hours of care per week paid for by CCC said she, along with many

others, could soon be facing care bills of around £90 per week.

The authority has agreed those on low income should not be charged, but details of care costs will be determined after

further consultation.

Mrs Simpson criticised the authority for leaving people in the dark.

"Some people, despite following the news, don't even know this is going to go ahead.

The council has not contacted me directly to let me know they are planning to introduce charges."

She added early indications that charges could be around £10 an hour would have caused "sleepless nights" for many.

The retired occupational therapist needs help four times a day including assistance with getting in and out of bed and already pays for seven extra hours of private care per week to cover services such as

cleaning and cooking.

She said her situation was not unique as Cumbria Care, the council-funded care service, only provide essential care and many people found they wanted further help around the house.

Cumbria County Council is one of just two local authorities still to provide home care free at the point of need.

The authority has backed the idea of introducing charges in a bid to raise £2.4m income.

The funds will be ring-fenced and fed back into services which social services spokesperson Coun John Mallinson said would help crack the

problem of bed blocking and help provide care for the dozens of people on authority waiting lists.

"We do not go into this lightly.

We would prefer for the service to be funded by national government but that does not seem to be possible," he said.

Coun Mallinson said disabled groups had been consulted about the decision to introduce charges but added: "We can not give out any more details yet because we won't have the information until after the second phase of consultation has been completed."

Mrs Simpson said: "The council are not the only ones who need to plan for this.

We do too."