Elderly ' to take charge of care'

Up to a million elderly and disabled people are to be put in charge of choosing their own social care, it has been announced.

"Personal budgets" are to be awarded to all those entitled to support by 2013, Care Services Minister Paul Burstow said.

They will allow people who receive social care provision from their local authority to decide for themselves how to spend the money they are entitled to.

The amounts involved range from a few hundred pounds to tens of thousands of pounds. While the idea was introduced in 1996, only about 250,000 of the one million people eligible currently have them.

Mr Burstow, a Liberal Democrat, said the move supported the coalition Government's vision of "the Big Society".

"Personal budgets can make an incredible difference to people's lives. They give people choice, control and independence," he said.

"They look to people, not the state, to shape services, and improve outcomes, making a reality of the Big Society. I want councils to provide everyone eligible with a personal budget by 2013."

Mr Burstow also announced that the Government was to spend £400 million over the next four years to pay for carers to take breaks - a key Lib Dem manifesto pledge.

The entitlement to personal budgets was set out in the Government's proposal, "A Vision for Adult Social Care"..

The document does not address the highly contentious issue of long-term funding, however, which is subject to an independent commission review expected to report next summer.