Less than a tenth of the £30 million the Scottish Government allocated to extend free personal care to people under 65 will help disabled people with care costs, according to campaigners.

'Frank's Law' was named for former Dundee United player Frank Kopel, who suffered from vascular dementia but was not entitled to help with his care costs because he died just weeks after his 65th birthday.

But even he may not have benefited from the change made in his name, according to Scotland Against the Care Tax (SACT).

The campaign, a coalition of disability charities, carers groups and care providers, has released a Scottish Government planning document which shows that less than £2.3 million of the money the Government sunk into Frank's Law will go to help disabled people and people with long term conditions currently affected by care charges.

The remaining balance of the money - more than £27 million – is allocated to local authorities for administration costs and to fund an additional demand for personal care. However campaigners say there is no evidence of a dramatic increase in demand from under 65, and they claim much of the money will simply be absorbed into councils' general funds.

The original estimate for the cost of introducing Frank's Law was £11 million. But the Scottish Government document seems to support the claims of critics who say only a fraction of that is reaching the people who need it. This is because many younger disabled people in receipt of expensive social care packages will continue to be charged the maximum possible to cover non-personal care.

Ian Hood, Spokesperson for Scotland Against the Care Tax said “At first the Scottish Government said that over 10,000 people would benefit but because of the way they have gone about this, only about 3,000 people will benefit.

And many of them will still have to pay large weekly amounts because some of their support won’t be counted as personal care.”

"He added, “The remainder of the money is not ring-fenced and is being given to councils to spend as they want. They justified this additional funding as being needed to meet an anticipated rush in demand for support. Yet, five months after the introduction of Frank’s Law, it is clear that there has been no such increase"

Nor will there be, he says. Because councils apply tight thresholds refusing care to anyone whose needs are not classed as 'critical or 'substantial', they will not see a big increase in claims for free personal care from under-65s who are not already known to social services.

"If Frank Kopel was still alive it is quite likely even he would not have seen any benefit from the new law. He received personal care, but also attended a day centre, and would probably have still ended up having to pay."

Jeff Adamson, Chair of Scotland Against the Care Tax, who relies on large amounts of personal care and social support to live an active, independent life, said his charges had gone up since the introduction of Frank's Law.

, “I am one of the many disabled people in Scotland who rely on large amounts of personal care and social care support to live a good life, but my charges have gone up since Frank’s Law was brought in, not down.

"Although 80 per cent of my care package has been adjudged as being personal care and I don't pay for this, I'm still paying for my social care which costs more than I've been assessed to pay.”

“We said there was a fairer way of doing this but they wouldn’t listen. Now we see why. No wonder, the Scottish Government was reluctant to release this paper to the Scottish Parliament Petitions Committee.”

Some councils appear to already have acknowledged they will not use all of the Frank's Law money for free personal care. Last month, Sough Ayrshire's integration joint board cut £315,000 from it's budget which had been allocated to cover such costs.

However a spokesperson for local authorities body Cosla said the SACT claims were 'deeply unhelpful'.

He added: "COSLA and the Scottish Government made a significant commitment to ensuring Free Personal Care was extended to under 65s from April this year. The policy was fully funded by Scottish Government to the tune of £30m in the first year and we continue to monitor the cost as we anticipate take up of this funding will increase over time.

“Just four months on from the full rollout of the policy it is deeply unhelpful to say that all of this money will not go to supporting disabled people. Everyone who is now entitled to Free Personal Care will be receiving that and there is no evidence that funds are being held back.

“This commitment was made in response to a successful campaign to raise awareness of the need to extend Free Personal Care and, in an undeniably difficult financial context, councils continue to invest as much as they can in social care.”