THURROCK Council has defended its decision to continue with its plans to charge some elderly and vulnerable residents £5 a week for its Careline assist service from the start of 2025.

However, it has acknowledged a failure of care in talking to residents about the scheme, which has included causing serious distress to one service user – who actually is likely to be eligible to get the service for free.

Careline is a personal alarm service that allows people to call for help when they need it. Careline alarms typically include a pendant with an SOS button that can be pressed in an emergency, most likely when an elderly residents or vulnerable person is isolated or has perhaps fallen and is incapacitated.

Last week Thurrock Nub News was contacted by the daughter of an 84 year-old man who was not given a cogent explanation of what was happened when he was 'cold-called' by a member of the council's support team, and so told the council to take the service away as he couldn't afford it.

His daughter told Nub News: "Customer Finance at Thurrock Council are calling residents today regarding the Care Line charges being implemented in January 2025 and my father was told he would have to pay £20 per month to keep his care line.

"Because he said he couldn't afford it and they would have to come and take it away - a flippant comment.

"Customer Finance have taken that as gospel and told Care Line to remove the equipment and Care Line have called him to do just that.

"So in the space of a couple of hours Thurrock Council cold call an elderly man and then call Care Line to remove the equipment. No second letter or a cooling off period for my Dad to have a conversation with family about it. I am disgusted with Thurrock Council.

"I am angry at the speed of the removal of the equipment.

"My Dad is in receipt of pension credit and would probably be exempt from paying for it. To cold call an 84-year-old man and not give him time to speak to family about it is deplorable.

"I have complained to customer finance and my Dad will now receive a financial assessment. A letter is being sent out on the 1 December I was told, so what is the point to calling people today? The reminder letter should be sent first and then the cold calling in my opinion."

The implementation of the charging was discussed at a special meeting of the council's Corporate Service committee last week, when details of its pending implementation were outlined.

The council says charging for the service will save it £135,000.

It was decision originally prosed by the pervious Conservative administration, but in preparing its new budget the current labour administration had the opportunity to make changes, but has chosen not to.

Nub News contacted the council about the way it deal with contacting people and informing them about the service – and also asked why – with the adults social services department currently running at a considerable underspend for 2024-25 - it had been decided to still implement the charges?

The council responded by saying: "We are very sorry that the experience of this resident has been lacking and apologise for any distress caused by the call.

"Thurrock Council agreed to introduce charges for assistive technology at full council in February 2024. This is in line with the current arrangements many other local authorities have in place. The charge will be subject to a financial assessment, and we anticipate that the majority of current service users will not pay any charges to continue receiving the service."

The council also defended the decision of the new administration not to rethink implementation of the scheme, saying: "The fact that this was approved by Full Council is made clear on the fifth slide of the 2025/26 Draft Budget Savings Proposals presentation that went to Corporate O&S on Wednesday 20 November.

"It says: 'It was approved at Full Council (Feb 2024) that Adult Social Care (ASC) apply a flat rate weekly charge for the monitoring and response service accessible to individuals provided Technology Enabled Care solutions following ASC eligibility determination.

"ASC is to adopt a cost recovery model that, subject to the financial assessment (means test) as defined by the Care Act (2014). An individual will pay up to the full cost of the service that they receive which is £5 per week."