Plans to make elderly pay for food preparation

Stirling Council has complained that current government guidance and regulations regarding the feeding of the elderly is confusing and 'ambiguous' leading them to make their own plans to start charging customers. Food preparation is usually part of care packages for pensioners. Stirling Council is one of eight in Scotland which charges for the service. Councillors came in for some criticism when they said the policy would not be reviewed until the Scottish Government tells them to. Graham Houston, Stirling's new leader of the Scottish National Party said the recent Sutherland review, which called for greater clarity from the Scottish government has led them to review the 2009-2010 budget. Graham explained: "We took over a budget from the Labour/Liberal Democrat administration which brought with it enormous challenges. We are very aware of the recent advice that's come from the Sutherland committee and we will take that into account when setting our future budget." In Scotland many of the councils that began charging elderly people for food preparation services have now done a u-turn and are reimbursing customers. A spokesperson for the Scottish government told the BBC: "We will work with Scottish councils to ensure the intention and wording of the revised legislation is clear and the charging issue put beyond any doubt once and for all."