Senior Greenwich councillors have voted through controversial new charges to social care, in a move which saw emotional service users brand them “murderers”. 

Cabinet members unanimously voted to move forward with the package of new charges, aimed at helping stem a £25m overspend the authority faces in its mid-term budget.

Activists and service users, however, claimed the changes would drive some of the borough’s most vulnerable residents to depression and potentially suicide.

Anne Novis, a wheelchair-using resident who was awarded an MBE in 2011 in recognition of her advocacy for disabled people, claimed “the poorest are targets to increase your funds for an unrealistic budget.” 

“All your plans and statements show we are of less value as human beings in this world,” she told councillors. 

“We have to live on far less and are the poorest in the borough, yet your plans to help the poorest do not apply to us.”

Sue Elsegood, the chair of disability advocacy group Metro Gad, said the changes could see some residents “take their own lives in despair”. 

“These proposals are nothing short of a tax on life and health,” Ms Elsegood, who uses a wheelchair and respirator, said to cabinet. 

Another resident, Fred Williams, stated in a heated address:

“How does it feel like being a murderer?…The stress will lead to some people killing themselves…that in my eyes makes you all murders.”

In response, cabinet member for adult social care and health Cllr Averil Lekau said in response the issue was “one of the most difficult proposals” she’d faced in her time as a councillor.

“I don’t think any of us in this cabinet have come into politics to try and disadvantage vulnerable people, however we still have a context we need to operate within,” she said. 

“Austerity is not our invention but we have to live with it…we’ve been tasked with making difficult decisions, but responsible decisions.”

She added that she had tried to make herself as available as possible to members of the public who wanted to discuss the changes, alongside the director and team behind social care.   

“We’ve been really open – the difficulty is we still have a decision to make. So I’ll be putting forward these recommendation,” she said. 

In support, Cllr Jackie Smith said to the assembled public: “Please don’t think it hasn’t given some of us sleepless nights”.

“I find this very difficult, none of us came into politics to make decisions like this but sadly they’re decisions we have to make to make sure we don’t get the council in a serious financial predicament,” said said. 

The member for children’s services and community safety said Greenwich could find itself in a situation like Northampton council “where they blew their budget” if they didn’t make “tough decisions”.  

Among the proposals are increases to charges for disabled residents’ homecare services, an end to subsidised meals, and charging residents who can afford to pay for sheltered and supported housing.

They form part of a package of proposals the council says will make the service more sustainable and bring it into line with other local authorities.

According to council officers, the authority has absorbed £130m in pressures over the last decade.

Greenwich isn’t the only authority to struggle with adult social care costs, with one officer describing it as a “national funding crisis” around the country.

That funding crisis has seen the gross cost of care increase by 36 per cent since 2014/15, while client income contribution has increased just four per cent.

The charges will come into effect on or after June  1.