Older and disabled people suffer postcode lottery over fees as numbers who have home care paid by local council fall 11%.
The number of vulnerable older and disabled people who had home care services fully paid by their local authority fell by 11% in England in the past two years, according to newly published figures.
The data also reveals wide variations in council charges across England.
Freedom of information requests to 120 councils revealed that home care services - which send carers to help vulnerable older and disabled people get up in the morning, and get washed, dressed and fed - are becoming more expensive and inaccessible to many of the population.
And there are wide disparities in the price people pay for care depending on their location. Home care, for example, is free in Tower Hamlets but costs £21.50 an hour in Brighton and Hove.
The data show that fewer older people - in excess of 7,000 - had their care services fully paid for by a local authority in 2011 a reduction of 11% compared to 2009.
With the government delaying its plans to tackle the underfunded social care system the rising cost of home care was branded a "stealth tax on the most vulnerable people in society", by Liz Kendall, the Labour MP for Leicester West.
The survey, seen by the Guardian, shows the average charge for an hour of home care has risen by 10% in the past two years - from £12.29 to £13.61. Kendall said that an average elderly person paid for 10 hours of home care a week and would have seen bills rise to an annual £7,077 in 2013 - up more than £680 since 2010.
Elderly voters are seen to be already smarting from the "granny tax", announced in the March budget. Kendall warned that fewer older people were getting their care for free, and more older and disabled people were being forced to pay more. "These services are a lifeline for older and disabled people, and crucial to help them stay living independently in their own homes," she said.
Home care is means tested and councils have varying "eligibility criteria": eight in 10 councils now only provide care for people with "substantial" or "critical" needs. Only those who meet council eligibility tests and have savings of less than £14,250 are entitled to free care.
Charities said that the price rises, which affect the poorest and most vulnerable, were "disgraceful". The Alzheimer's Society said: "Many people with dementia and their carers are already struggling to pay for home care and some may not be able to afford the increased prices. The extortionate costs in some parts of the country don't even guarantee good quality care. This is disgraceful. Home care services are vital in helping to maintain quality of life for people living with dementia."
Labour claims the government, despite promising to protect social care services, has cut more than £1bn from local council budgets for older people.
Many councils cap the weekly costs the elderly are required to pay for home care. But in a sign of how difficult funding has become for social care, almost half of the councils that reported having a ceiling on costs have now removed this.
Local authorities warned that things were "only going to get much worse" with the government imposing a 28% funding cut over the next four years.
David Rogers, chair of the Local Government Association's community wellbeing board, said: "The sad reality is, these findings aren't surprising.
Unless we see urgent reform of how care is provided to our rapidly aging population things are only going to get much worse ? the cost of adult social care already takes up more than 40% of council budgets and we are very close to a point where failure to address the crisis in social care funding could set the long-term solution back years."
Many in the sector warn that the corollary of cuts without reform is charges in social care becoming more prevalent.
"There are political decisions about charging. The bottom line is that we only have so much money to spend before we have to look at a charging policy," said Sarah Pickup, president of the Association of Directors of Social Services.
However the government insists there is enough money in the system for local authorities to pay for elderly care. The care services minister, Paul Burstow, said the government was working on "cross party agreement" on social care funding. "Councils decide whether and how much to charge for home care services and the current system of charging has been around since the 1980s. In the spending review the government recognised the pressures on the adult social care system, and took the decision to prioritise adult social care by allocating an additional £7.2bn up to 2014/15."
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