Home help for elderly slashed to save money

Fairfax

ASSISTANCE: About 3000 people receive some form of home help from the district health board.

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Up to 500 elderly or disabled people who receive help around the house will have their assistance axed as Wellington's district health board tries to save money.

Capital & Coast District Health Board announced yesterday that people receiving household management help only and not personal health care would have that help cut unless they had a community services card.

From Monday, any new patients referred for a home-help assessment will not be eligible for help with cleaning, heavy lifting, meal preparation or shopping unless they also need personal health and hygiene care.

Existing household management-only clients who do not have a community services card will have their help cut at their first re-assessment after December 1.

Planning and funding director Sandra Williams said the change was needed because the district health board "only has so much money".

However, a district health board spokeswoman said the board was unsure exactly how much would be saved.

"The estimate is about $500,000 a year."

About 3000 people receive some form of home help from the district health board, with about 500 receiving just household management support.

Until now, Capital & Coast was the only district health board that did not means-test its home help clients.

Since late last year, district health boards have cut thousands of hours of home help, mostly to elderly people. That included Wellington, where elderly people complained their help had been unfairly cut after a short telephone assessment.

Capital & Coast's spokeswoman said the decision to change the criteria was made in June – the same month The Dominion Post was assured the district health board had not made or planned any systematic cuts to home help.

Kapiti Grey Power health spokesman Peter Sander said the organisation was told of the changes only yesterday and was disappointed it had not been warned or consulted.

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