SOARING home care charges in most of the region are a stealth tax on the elderly, Labour warned yesterday.

The party raised the alarm over rising costs facing pensioners and disabled people who require help to get up, wash, dress and make meals in their own homes.

A survey found that eight out of ten local authorities in the North- East and North Yorkshire have hiked hourly care charges over the past three years.

North Yorkshire revealed a 13 per cent rise – to £16.90 per hour – with Newcastle (17.2 per cent), Gateshead (10.5 per cent) and Darlington (5.3 per cent) also making care significantly more expensive.

But even more alarming were dramatic increases in the maximum weekly charge for non-residential care, which rose at six of the ten councils in the region.

The cap leapt in Newcastle (up 33 per cent) and Gateshead (29.3 per cent), between 2009-10 and 2012-13 – although Stockton (1.1 per cent) and Sunderland (no change) held it down.

Three authorities – North Yorkshire, Redcar and Cleveland and South Tyneside – scrapped their caps altogether. Darlington, Middlesbrough and York had no weekly charge limit already.

Liz Kendall, Labour spokeswoman for older people, said: “These increases in home care charges are a stealth tax on the elderly and most vulnerable people in society.

“These services are a lifeline for older and disabled people and crucial to help them stay living independently in their own homes.

The Government is out of touch with the growing care crisis.”

Ms Kendall blamed a £1bn cut from local council budgets for older people, adding: “David Cameron must act urgently.”

Paul Burstow, the Care Services Minister, said the Government had recognised the pressures facing social care by pumping in an extra £7.2bn by 2015.

But Conservative-controlled North Yorkshire County Council directly blamed its higher care charges on “£9m savings required to meet the Government’s national deficit reduction strategy”.

A spokesman added: “The council is aiming to protect frontline services for older people as much as possible.”

The Labour survey also revealed an 11 per cent fall in the number of elderly people in England receiving council-funded care, down to 59,056 over-65s in 2011-12, from 66,342 in 2009-10.

In the North-East, the biggest decline was in Stockton, from 656 to 358 – a fall of 45 per cent – followed by Sunderland (11 per cent) and Hartlepool (four per cent).