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A shameless Tory council is poised to become the first in Britain to start charging the sick and disabled for their own care assessments.

Furious Labour MPs and campaign groups hit out at plans by Tory-run Northamptonshire County Council to force people need of social services to pay £50 for a needs assessment before they can access care.

The plan appears to flaunt clear Whitehall instructions that town halls should provide care assessments for free.

“Charging for this is wrong,” said Andrew Boaden of the Alzheimer’s Society.

“The burden of paying for care already leaves many people choosing between a hot meal or buying in help to shower and get dressed.

“Charging for an assessment is another barrier that will make this already dire situation worse.”

Local people have already launched a campaign to stop the cruel £50 charge, which will apply to anyone who owns a home worth more than £23,250.

“It’s a scandal,” Carlo Salvatore, of Northamptonshire Disabled People Against Cuts, told the Northamptonshire Telegraph.

“It is an extension of a wider culture of jumping through hoops, as happens with accessing benefits - and comes on top of the unjust and unfair burden of the bedroom tax.”

Labour has vowed to fight the plan amid fears other cash-strapped councils could begin to follow suit.

(Image: Getty)

Barbara Keeley MP, Labour’s shadow cabinet member for social care, said she will write to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and demand he intervenes.

“The funding of social care is in crisis - but it is really worrying that any council should feel pushed to a position of proposing charging people for an assessment of their needs,” she said.

“Local councils have a duty to carry out assessments of need for people who appear to need care. Government guidance on this duty says quite specifically that assessments of needs may not be charged for.

“I am writing to Jeremy Hunt to ask him to clarify this with councils, so that financial barriers are not created to stop people with care needs from having an assessment.”

The Tory-led council has launched a consultation on the plan which closes next week, ahead of a final decision later next month.

A spokesman said: “Adult social care services across the country are means-tested, which means people above a certain level of savings and investments are expected to contribute towards the cost of their care.

“Paid-for care services are only intended to help those who cannot help themselves.”