Charities are being forced to subsidise state-funded places for the elderly in care homes, it has been claimed.

Figures released on Monday reveal there has been a dramatic increase in the amount of money charity-run care homes are having to pay to subsidise most state-funded places because, they say, councils are failing to provide enough money.

Forum Response: Counsel and Care

"The price that some local authorities are prepared to pay to meet the cost of an older person's place in a care home has been too low for too long. Families and friends 'club together' to make up the difference though we would generally counsel caution as some of the families may have only limited resources and no certainty that they will be able to continue contributing for what may prove a long period of residence.""Often these contributors are themselves elderly people with fixed incomes that cannot easily be made to stretch as far as necessary to fill the gap. So, it is unsurprising that charitable organisations running homes have chosen to cover some of the gap by drawing on their own reserves to avoid a worse fate - eviction - for those residents reliant on public funds to meet the cost of their place at the home."

"It is of questionable legality to make use of charitable funds to cover the shortcomings in local authority funding regimes, but it is wholly understandable why they have done it. It is even more worrying and definitely of dubious legality that social workers are directed to elicit third party contributions from families when the duty of the local authority to meet the cost is clear. Organisations providing care for older people whether they are voluntary organisations or commercial businesses must continue to question the government's commitment to funding residential care for older people. It is unacceptable and shaming us all that the dignity and comfort of older people should be compromised as a result of councils' purchasing policies. Let's set a fair rate for care."

Forum Response: Help the Aged

Paul Cann, director of policy at Help the Aged, told ePolitix.com: "The government is failing to recognise the importance of social care. As a result of the pressure on providers, care homes are closing at an alarming rate. The number of places lost in the last four years is approaching 50,000."

Forum Response: Charity Commission

A spokesman for the Charity Commission told ePolitix.com: "A charity's funds cannot be used to pay for services that a public body is required to provide but they may be used to supplement their provision. In practice, it may be difficult to draw a simple distinction between a core public service and a supplementary service and charities will need to consider carefully where these boundaries lie and manage the risks accordingly."