The numbers of home helps, meals-on-wheels teams and therapists visiting the elderly fell by 16,000 in 2001, according to new government figures.

Over the past decade, the number of old people receiving help has dropped by more than a quarter.

Forum Response: Help the Aged

Hilary Carter, senior press officer at Help the Aged, told ePolitix.com: "The help is going to only those people who are in a desperate situation.

"Fewer people are getting the home care that they need to stay in their own homes. If they carry on without support they are going to join the ranks of people who need places in residential homes.

"The crisis is affecting people in their own homes as well as in care homes. The majority of people who need help are not getting it."