Angry carers at two residential homes are facing a pay cut of up to £200 a month and demotion.

Care officers at Lake House, Adderbury, and Glebe House, Kidlington, have been offered compensation of up to £6,500 in exchange for giving up pay and status.

They are currently paid more than their counterparts, called care assistants, in other residential homes run by Oxfordshire County Council.

A care officer earns between £11,800 and £12,600. A care assistant earns £9,500 but can also claim extra money for working unsociable hours. The reason for the difference in pay scales is Lake House and Glebe House were originally intended for people needing a higher level of care.

Oxfordshire Social Services now says elderly people in the two homes do not need more care than those in its others.

Savings of £80,000 a year would be made by demoting the 59 care officers to care assistants, stripping them of some responsibilities, such as giving out medication.

Mark Fysh, branch secretary of the trade union Unison, said: "They are all very upset about it. "They can either accept the £6,500, which is taxable, or they will be dismissed on February 1, and they would have to be taken on under a new contract if they wanted their job back."

Jean Carr, assistant director of social services, said: "The care staff in these homes are paid higher rates of pay than their counterparts in our other homes for doing a similar type of job. We felt we could not justify closing services elsewhere when we had this anomaly of costs."

Story date: Saturday 30 October

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.