Emergency respite care in Scotland

[xu5]

Recently the wife of an elderly man, who is registered as his carer, had an accident and had to spend a week in hospital and was unable to provide care for her husband for a further 2 weeks. The man was taken into respite until his wife was able to look after him again. Whilst dealing with the social workers arranging respite it was stated that a cost may be involved.

Could someone explain how the charging for respite in Scotland works. It has been quite difficult to get a overview of what respite carers are entitled to and when a cost will be involved. Is there not a period of emergency respite provided for free? I can understand that respite is an expensive thing but there also seems to be many instances of people being incorrectly charged for respite by councils.