THE PRICE OF HELP

Denmark's Supreme Court made a decision yesterday, that could have huge consequences for society in the future. Is it legal for a local authority to reduce the amount of home help (cleaning, washing etc) given to a pensioner if that local authority is under financial pressure and needs to cut costs? The short answer is yes.

Back in 1998 all local authorities were charged with carrying out an annual quality assessment for personal and practical help for each and every citizen covered by the services. The assessment includes a description of the level of services. In 2012 the law was amended by including the following sentence; "the decision will be taken on the basis of professional and financial considerations".

Køge Kommune took advantage of this change to reduce the amount of home help available to its pensioners. An affected 87-year old pensioner, backed by the Danish equivalent of Help the Aged, took them to court. It is one thing to reduce the level of service for new applicants, it is quite another to reduce the amount of service already approved and given to a particular pensioner, they argued; after all, that person is not getting any younger or fitter. On this crucial point, however, the local authority won (albeit by a bare majority). The only constraint is that a new quality assessment has to be done before they can reduce or otherwise change the service level.

This decision has immense implications for the future. Pensioners are living ever longer, so the potential costs to local authorities of home help would otherwise have got ever bigger. With this decision, the courts have decided that there is in fact a limit to the financial burden on the state. Although they haven't exactly leaped up and down in public, politicians of all parties will be breathing a sigh of relief.

Walter Blotscher