Hundreds die awaiting care refund

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Nearly 1,800 people have died in south west Scotland before receiving a care charge refund they were due.

Dumfries and Galloway Council has now pledged to make every effort to trace the families of people who were wrongly billed for food preparation.

Only 359 individuals entitled to such repayments are still alive.

A total of £1.5m has been set aside to make the refunds and the council has said it will take steps to track down relatives of anyone who has died.

Free personal care was introduced in Scotland in 2002 through the Community Care and Health Act.

We will take every step possible to trace every person or every family who has somebody that has died who should have been repaid under free personal care Cllr Denis Male

It subsequently emerged that a number of councils were still charging for food preparation.

Dumfries and Galloway Council opted to drop those fees in early 2006.

It made a £100 "goodwill" payment to 700 people last year.

However, due to the complexities of working through individual care plans, no further refunds have been made.

Opposition Labour councillor Ronnie Nicholson said the move to trace people whose relatives had died before they could receive a payment was long overdue.

"We have got 1,800 people that have actually died since this came in," he said.

"These families deserve to be treated in a respectful way.

"They deserve to have that money without any prevarication, they shouldn't need to prove their case."

He said the resources needed to be put in by the council to address the situation more quickly.

Legal issues

Social work committee chairman, Tory Denis Male, said there was still some complex legal work to get through.

However, he said the council was committed to giving refunds to those who were entitled to them.

"There are legal issues there that we have to resolve," he said.

"We will take every step possible to trace every person or every family who has somebody that has died who should have been repaid under free personal care.

"One of the proposals I hope will come forward is that we will have a six-month advertising period for people to come forward."