Thousands of pensioners could be forced into care homes against their will under secret NHS cost cutting plans.
More than 13,000 elderly people are expected to be effectively evicted as health authorities refuse to fund care in their own homes.
Charities expressed alarm, describing the new measures as “outrageous.”
At least 37 Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) have drawn up new restrictions governing care for elderly and disabled patients, Freedom of Information disclosures reveal.
The responses - from 122 of the country’s 209 CCGs - show that authorities have ruled that they would not pay for help at home if it was cheaper to send pensioners to a care home.
Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director at Age UK said: “ This is extremely worrying. It is horrible to think that an older person who wants to stay at home could now be forced to go into a care home.
"Not only does this go against Government policy of keeping people in their own homes, it ignores the fact that in certain areas there is already a grave shortage of care home beds.”
Simon Bottery, from charity Independent Age, said: “It is frankly outrageous that older people could be made to move into residential care when they are able to live independently in their own home."
The investigation by Health Service Journal and campaigners Disability United examined NHS policies on Continuing Healthcare - a fund which pays for care of those whose needs are primarily medical.
Around 19 of the 37 CCGs in question have banned paying for care at home if the cost exceeds that of residential homes by more than 10 per cent. Another seven said they had set the threshold at 20, 25 or 40 per cent above care home fees.
Several said they might be open to accusations that the restrictions breached human rights, but believed they could justify the decisions on cost grounds.
Former care minister and Lib Dem MP Norman Lamb said it was “scandalous”. He said: “If someone is able to live independently forcing them to live in a care home is outrageous.
“It treats people as second class citizens.”
A Department of Health spokeswoman said: ‘It does not fall to us to approve an individual CCG’s policy.”
Around 300,000 pensioners in England and Wales are living in a care home at any given time, a clear majority of them over the age of 85.
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