Councillors' expenses and meal allowances can be twice what councils pay in care fees

In Powys it costs £60.57 for residential care while councillors can claim £123 for an overnight stay – that's more than they pay for nursing care care for the elderly mentally ill at £87.86.

If councillors are away on official business, they can claim £95 a night for overnight accommodation and £28 for meals, making a total of £123.

Councillors can also claim travelling expenses, including 5p a mile for car passengers and 20p a mile for those using a bicycle.

In addition, they can receive up to £403 a month for the cost of providing care for children, elderly or disabled relatives while they're on council business.

Care Forum Wales, the body that represents nearly 500 social care providers, has now urged the newly-elected councillors to review care home fees "on the basis of fairness".

Mary Wimbury, senior policy advisor, said: "We certainly don't begrudge councillors the right to claim legitimate expenses while on official duties. Far from it. Councillors do an important job and they must be properly reimbursed and supported.

"But it seems only fair that as a society we provide a similar adequate level of funding for social care for the most vulnerable people in our communities.

"It seems to me only right that a councillor, who has expenses quite properly to deal with council business, should not be having more than it pays for a profoundly frail older person who has been assessed as needing that care.

"Councillors are reimbursed for real costs and the point we would make is that social care providers are also having to deal with very real costs.

"Nursing care involves paying a nurse to be on the premises 24/7 and staff will need to help, dressing, washing and sometimes moving and feeding residents as well as dealing with incontinence. This level of care is way above and beyond the cost of accommodation and food for a councillor.

"We have surely got our priorities wrong and something needs to change because local authorities have looked after their elected members first and foremost."

Lee Evans, spokesman for Powys County Council, said allowances and expenses for councillors are set by The Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales – not the county council, and that it was up to individual councillors whether they took their full allowance entitlement.