MOSCOW (Sputnik) — More than 120,000 people have signed an online petition as of Thursday to save Britain's oldest World War II prisoner of war from being sent into care, after the local council refused to pay for at-home care service.
According to the petition, Robert Clark, 96, has funds to last three months, after spending most of his savings on 24-hour care at his North London home.
The regional council, responsible for treatment fee approval, claims that the cost of an in-home caregiver is too high, and they would not cover it. The authorities want the veteran moved to a nearby care facility, according to local media.
Clark's family believe that going into a home would hasten his death, as the veteran explained it reminds him of being a prisoner of war.
"However, the problem arises as the care package that Mr Clark is choosing is not affordable to council taxpayers given the constraints of local government funding and the need to be consistent for the 2,900 people we support," Phil Porter, Brent council's strategic director of adult social care, said, as quoted by The Telegraph newspaper.
Clark is blind, half-deaf and in a wheelchair. He was one of the few prisoners to survive Adolf Hitler's "Death March," a 1,000 mile pull-back through Europe.
