TWENTY lifeline jobs for the elderly have been lost in Winchester because of cuts at Hampshire County Council.

The city council is making redundant staff who helped people in sheltered housing, after the Tory-controlled county slashed its Supporting People Budget.

Thirty-four staff, the equivalent of 27 full-time posts, provided support through lifeline alarm monitoring.

MORE: Hampshire civic chiefs spend £19,000 a day on consultants whilst cutting crucial services

Ten staff have been kept on to continue to monitor the lifeline service to the wider community, said a council spokesman.

There were four vacancies, but 20 staff were made redundant on Tuesday.

The spokesman said: “All 20 made redundant worked on delivering county council-funded support. As Hampshire County Council did not renew the contract, the city council is no longer the provider of that support.

“The city council has commissioned an external alarm monitoring service.”

Hampshire is making the cuts at the same time as spending millions on management consultants.

The Chronicle revealed on Thursday that £12.8 million has been spent on outside advice between January 2013 and September 2014.

The £450,000 cost of redundancies will have to be met from city council budgets, although it stresses that this will come from housing rents and not the general fund.

Steve Miller, the Conservative city council portfolio holder for housing, said: “It is very sad news for the employees and customers; they won’t get the level of service they were getting previously.

“The housing team tried extremely hard to stop this. We didn’t want to do this but it was a service provided by the county council. We hope to minimise the impact.”

Former mayor and city councillor Sue Nelmes uses the lifeline service. She told Council: “There is no point having a lifeline because if you phone up they can’t send anyone anyway.”

Lib Dem city councillor Martin Tod said: “A lot of people are very worried about the change to the alarm system.

“There is a real risk the whole policy is going to be counter-productive. For some people the knowledge of having people at the end of an alarm call means they are able to carry on living at home.

“The risk is that some people have to go into more expensive care because of cuts to a relatively cheap service providing a really helpful service and giving peace of mind and the convenience to live in your own home. The law of unintended consequences.”

The county council has cut its Supporting People Budget from £25.7 million in 2013-14 to £24.02m in 2014-15. It will be cut by more than £10 million to £13.8m in 2015-16.

A spokesman for Hampshire Age Concern declined to comment but referred to anyone affected by the cuts to its helpline on 0800 328 7154.