KEVIN SCHOFIELD and BRIAN DONNELLY

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg yesterday ditched his party's plans for free personal care for the elderly in England after claiming Scotland's introduction of the policy had shown it to be unaffordable.

Mr Clegg had been expected to commit his party to introducing the measure as a way of tackling pensioner poverty, but instead he moved to adopt a "partnership model" which would see two-thirds of the costs picked up by the state and the rest by the patient.

LibDem aides said that experience in Scotland - where free personal care was introduced by the Labour/Libdem coalition in 2001 - had exposed the difficulty of guaranteeing free care for all and that a £2bn investment would not go as far as previously expected.

Other proposals detailed by Mr Clegg yesterday include a new "patient contract" promising NHS healthcare within a certain timeframe and directly elected local health boards to make NHS bosses more accountable to patients.

But the decision to drop the free care commitment led to accusations of a LibDem U-turn by the party's opponents.

Dr Ian McKee, an SNP MSP, said: "The LibDems may have backed off providing free personal care, which I am sure will disappoint many elderly people across England, but it seems the rest of their proposals come straight from the SNP manifesto."

Ivan Lewis, the Labour Health Minister at Westminster, said: "Under the cover of a new policy, he has cynically ditched the LibDem manifesto commitment to free personal care for all elderly people."

The proposals, to be put to the LibDem conference in March, would mean only the poorest English pensioners would have their entire expenses covered - subject to means-testing - as they do already.

The "partnership model" is based on Sir Derek Wanless's recommendation in a major report on elderly care in 2006 which warned that the costs were set to soar.

On a visit to an activity centre in London yesterday, Mr Clegg said: "We are the first party with serious plans to end the punishing poverty which afflicts the many elderly people forced to pay for their personal care entirely out of their own pockets."

Last night, pensioners' groups insisted the policy in Scotland was a success.

David Manion, chief executive of Age Concern Scotland, said: "Free personal care in Scotland is not unaffordable or unsustainable. The cost to the Scottish Government is around 1% of its budget."

A spokesman for Help the Aged Scotland said: "The general consensus is that it is a good thing and worth keeping."