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More than 46,000 vulnerable elderly people have had their meals on wheels service axed in three years under vicious Tory cuts.

The Malnutrition Task Force said official figures show the number receiving the lifeline plunged from 75,885 in 2010/2011 to 29,605 in 2013/14.

Overall, spending on meals on wheels for people aged 65 and over slumped 47% in the period, from £42.1million to £22.3million.

Meanwhile, there was a 34.2% surge in the number of elderly people admitted to hospital suffering malnutrition. In the last year of the period, admissions were highest among the 50 to 59 age group for women and the 60 to 69 group for men.

Diane Jeffrey, chair of the Malnutrition Task Force and Age UK, slammed the Government for driving meals on wheels toward “extinction”.

She said: “Ensuring older people are well nourished is essential if they are to stay fit and well, and meals on wheels have played an important role in this.

(Image: NEIL HALL/SUNDAY MIRROR)

“It is dismaying to see this former mainstay of community care for older people being allowed to shrivel away because of Government cuts.

“At this rate of decline there won’t be any meals on wheels provision at all in a few years. An important preventive service for older people is well on the way to becoming extinct.

“This seems a terrible false economy, since the meals on wheels service helps to prevent malnutrition, which makes older people more vulnerable to illness and disease. That piles cost on the NHS.

“Meals on wheels also provides essential social contact for those pensioners who are otherwise alone, an ­important indirect benefit.”

The Malnutrition Task Force is an independent group of experts from health, social care and local government. It is backed by the charity Age UK, the Royal Voluntary Service, Bapen and the meals and nutrition firms Apetito and Nutricia Advanced Medical Nutrition.

Councils have the power to work out who needs meals in their area, as well as whether they will subsidise them or if people are charged.

But figures from Age UK reveal that the spend on services per head of ­population is falling.

In 2010/11, the average cost per person per year over the age of 65 was £4.92. This had dropped to just £2.40 in 2013/14.

Age UK estimates that there are 300,000 people aged 65 and over in England who need help with eating or have ­difficulty eating unaided.