Calling Glasgow!
So the big social care case involving Glasgow City Council (GCC) and Scotland's Court of Session ended in something of a score draw.
The court decided that GCC had failed to carry out an adequate equality impact assessment, a poor show for Scotland's largest SNP/Green led council.
Just before the hearing got underway Glasgow applied new 'rules' and reduced the increase from over 50% to around 6%, but only in this individual case which means charges that were going to rise by £1,500 (from £3,000 to over £4,500) will now increase by around £180.
Problem is there are lots of disabled Glaswegians who will not have understood how unfair these planned changes were, of their ability to ask for a reassessment, or been represented by a organisation like Govan Law centre.
In the worst case scenario disabled people in Glasgow may have been frightened into giving up their support services altogether faced with such a big increase in charges - no one seems able to put a figure on this group as yet.
So the challenge now is to encourage Glaswegians affected by the City Council's charging policy to ask for a financial review - because an eye watering increase in charges of over 50% in a single year is utterly shameful and indefensible.
Read more in this article by Mike Dailly from Govan Law Centre in the Glasgow Times.
“Just before the hearing in BB, GCC agreed to apply disability related expenditure which reduced the increase in charges from 50% to 6% per week … The key message for those with charges is if you’re in financial hardship request a financial reassessment”. https://t.co/x9rK7WnCjH
— Mike Dailly (@mikedailly) April 22, 2024