Lack of Government cash is to blame for Bexley Council’s decision to cut home care for the disabled and elderly, a Bexley councillor has claimed.

Cabinet member for adult care Councillor Sharon Massey was responding to last week’s News Shopper story about the cutbacks.

Cllr Massey defended Bexley’s position at the council meeting last week, saying the issue was “a very serious one”.

Bexley has tightened up its criteria on qualifying for council subsidised care, which means a number of people currently receiving help are having it withdrawn.

They have been told if they want help they will have to organise and pay for it themselves.

Cllr Massey said: “No-one wanted to change the criteria.

“We have had to make difficult decisions, but we have to protect the vulnerable.”

She said there was always concern when care has to be withdrawn and the financial burden falls on the families who still want the service.

But she said Government funding had not kept pace while the demand for care was growing as a result of the increasing age of the population.

Bexley has taken a decision to no longer provide any care for people with moderate problems, and is now concentrating on those with substantial or critical needs.

Everyone who receives care is being reassessed and those still judged to have moderate needs are having their subsidised care withdrawn.

Bexley currently has 400 cases a month which need reviewing.

Cllr Massey told the meeting: “It is hard on the front line staff who have to tell people they cannot have this service any more and hard on those people’s families.”

She added: “We have to tell them, it is not because we do not care, but because we do not have the money.

“And 80 per cent of councils are in the same position.

“We need more money.”