The boss of a group representing companies providing care to the elderly and disabled blames the Government for a staffing crisis.

Terry Playford, chairman of the Private Independent Providers Group, says the Government does not provide enough cash to local authorities to fund the necessary and dedicated work of carers.

Retired airline supervisor George Oldfield raised the staffing issue after being told by care company Anchor Care Alternatives it was struggling with staffing levels and could not provide as much care to his 91-year-old mother as had been agreed.

The former British Airways employee said it was undignified for his mother to have to rely on him for her most personal needs and he feared other elderly and disabled people in Brighton and Hove could be suffering in silence because they are too afraid to complain.

He said: "My mother is lucky because I'm here to speak out for her but there must be others too frightened to complain. It has reduced me to tears and Im at the end of my tether."

Mr Oldfield, 58, who has lived in Grand Avenue Mansions, Hove, for 19 years, moved his mother from London into a flat across the corridor from him about three years ago. He moved her so he could care for her but did not expect to be left to provide the most intimate duties.

He said: "My mother never complains, never moans and is so grateful but there are some things I shouldn't really be doing - it's not appropriate."

Anchor Care Alternatives was contracted by Brighton and Hove City Council to provide some home care services to clients in the city.

Mr Playford, whose group represents private care companies including Anchor, said: "We must point out that the local social services are not at fault because their budgets are not large enough to enable us to increase the carers pay. It is Government that is at fault in not providing sufficient funds to the local authority and we see the problem getting much worse."

Mr Playford said: "We have been saying for years now that our service is not paid enough from social services and it follows that carers then cannot be paid enough to attract them into the profession.

"Our prices our being held down in a complicated pricing system and that is having a direct result on our ability to recruit carers."

He said currently carers were being paid between £4 and £5 per hour and that is only for the work they do in that hour. They are not paid for travelling time between calls and travelling expenses for work that involves personal care such as washing dressing and cleaning incontinent people. He said people were being paid between £5 and £6 per hour in supermarket on a cash register.

Mr Playford said: "These carers should get at least £6 per hour basic but if we raised the wage to that all companies in Brighton and Hove would go out of business. All companies in Brighton and Hove are struggling to make ends meet and are not making huge profits."

He added: "Carers need to live on these wages and it never ceases to amaze us the total devotion these carers have towards their clients often going well beyond the boundaries. This is going the same way rest homes are going where money is gradually being squeezed out of the system."

Mr Oldfield has said he would now write to his MP to highlight the problem.