Advice service threatened

A HELP and advice service in Hailsham which provides support for elderly and housebound people in their homes is losing half its funding.

East Sussex County Council is withdrawing the 5,600 it provides to the Citizens Advice Bureau in Hailsham to cover six hours of home visits a week.

The cut is one of several affecting local services including the William Daly Centre in Polegate, the Firstfields day centre in Hailsham, the Newick Area Community Care Association for elderly people in Wealden and Lewes, and the Uckfield CAB.

The Hailsham Advocacy Home Visiting Project, which brings the full range of CAB services to elderly and housebound residents in their own homes, will now have to be halved to six hours a week or scrapped altogether.

Joint manager of Hailsham CAB, Jill Voyce, said the service was absolutely vital for a large number of people. 'It s the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups who make use of the scheme, she said. 'Last year, we helped our clients claim a total of 144,000 in benefits that many of them didn t even know they were entitled to.

'One client s weekly income has increased by 129 as a result of our advice, and there are many more we have visited who cannot put a financial value on our service.

'Struggle

The CAB advocacy project currently takes on cases referred from other organisations including social services, the health service and Wealden District Council. The six hours worth of home visits that will remain after the cuts will be paid for by the Eastbourne Downs Primary Care Group.

'We struggle to cope with all our clients in twelve hours a week as it is, said Jill. 'Now that we re down to six, we re going to have to cut back. But who we see and who we turn away will be an impossible decision, and one I hope I will never have to make.

'It s not possible to subsidise the home visiting project with our core funding, so its future is in jeopardy half a project is often no better than no project at all.

A county council spokesman said the cuts were an unfortunate result of the 4millon savings that have to be made this year in the social services budget. He added: 'We are confident that the needs of people with learning disabilities will continue to be met through our ongoing support of another advocacy service called My Choice, which will help people across the whole county.

Hailsham LibDem councillor Nick Ellwood said: 'The county council keeps talking about "Best Value", but cutting grants for the frail, disadvantaged and elderly is not best value. Are these meant to be caring councillors?

'All the Tories care about is cutting a few pence off council tax, but you get what you pay for you can t have tax cuts as well as decent services.