A YORK asthma sufferer fears the scrapping of a subsidised council cleaning service could leave her unable to live in her own home.

She is one of 400 residents who have been told by letter that they are to lose the service from the end of July because of City of York Council cutbacks.

Karima Hallett, 60, of Church Close, Askham Bryan, suffers from severe asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which means her airways have narrowed. She also suffers from heart problems.

The service is vital for her to clean her bed and get rid of dust which aggravates her condition.

She cannot manage the exertion involved in dusting and using a vacuum cleaner, so uses the cleaning service, paying £6.70 for two hours of cleaning per week. She said the council paid the other half of the cost.

"I received this letter out of the blue. It says they've decided to end the service because of 'severe and continual financial pressures'," she said.

"It says other vital services are being protected, but I consider this to be a vital service."

Under the current system, people are assessed for their care needs and then receive the cleaning service in addition. The council has said that people can apply to be reassessed.

Karima, who lives on a pension and disability living allowance, said: "I have requested a reassessment on the grounds that if I try and do dusting and vacuuming myself I will have a severe asthma attack which will cause my throat to bleed and will cause me to go to hospital and I won't be able to live at home."

She said if she did not pass the assessment she would only be able to afford one hour a week, and was worried that this would not be enough time for the vital cleaning.

Jim Crook, director of community services at the City of York Council, said: "We do expect a number of our existing customers to request a reassessment, and some of these will obviously continue to receive services because of other needs."

He said: "Very few councils provide this kind of service, and set against the need for other, vital, care services to continue and another tough budget round for the council, difficult decisions had to be made.

"We have written this week to all our customers to explain the position and to explain the council's decision. Care needs will continue to be met through other services, but domestic cleaning arrangements will need to be made in other ways.

"We are providing a list of accredited private agencies who provide domestic services."

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Updated: 11:21 Friday, April 19, 2002