SUPPORT services for vulnerable people have been hit by an £800,000 cut in Government funding.

North Yorkshire County Council says it has left the funding body struggling to maintain its level of support and has criticised the Government for its 'backdoor cuts in budgets for local authority services.'

The Supporting People Commissioning Body, which is made up of the county council, district councils, primary care trusts and the probation service, provides funding to help vulnerable people live independently in the community.

These include people with learning disabilities, older people in sheltered housing, homeless people and people recently released from prison.

The county council say that large scale reductions in Government funding over the last two years amounts to a cut of £800,000. Last year saw a budget reduction of £364,000 and this year there will be a further cut of more than £424,000.

The commissioning body is trying to identify areas where cuts can be made that minimise the impact on services.

It is considering ways of meeting the deficit, and says it may have to look at the services which have higher costs per person. But they admit that this will leave vulnerable people getting less one-to-one help from a support worker.

The body has already applied a zero inflation rate to all contracted services.

Coun Murray Naylor, chairman of the scrutiny committee which oversees the project, said the Government money is ring-fenced for specific projects, so it is not part of the county council or district council budgets, but it does have a knock-on effect.

He said: "This is another example of Government applying backdoor cuts in budgets for local authority services.

"We will need to ensure that service users continue to be supported to live independently but we simply have not been given enough money to meet the current level of contracted services."