Charges for care and support

Financial assistance is strictly means-tested. If you are making an application for financial assistance to help reduce your care and support costs, the law requires you to declare your true financial circumstances. Failure to do so could render you or your representative liable to legal proceedings.

When it has been agreed that you are going to receive some care services, your social worker will ask the Client Finance team to carry out a financial assessment to see if you qualify for any financial assistance.

We will contact you and you will be asked to provide financial evidence for your financial assessment.

What information will I need to provide for my financial assessment?

Some examples of evidence required includes:

• Welfare Benefits – recent benefit award letters from DWP or up-to-date bank statements showing details of these payments.
• Occupational / Private Pensions – letters from works pensions or annuity providers including any draw-down arrangements you might have made to access pension funds early.
• Bank Statements – Transactional bank statements or pass books for all accounts held covering the period of at least 12-months prior to the date you began to receive services to the present day.
• Investments – Details of any shares, national savings products, bonds etc.
• Property and Land – Details of any property or land owned or previously owned, including your main or only home and any other income and investments.
• Disability Related Expenses – Evidence of disability-related expenses.

As part of the financial assessment means test, we will need to ask you about your income and any capital that you have. This information will be treated confidentially. We will then work out if you are eligible for some financial assistance towards the cost of your care from the Council. We will work this out according to the government rules contained in the Care Act.

You may wish to get independent advice about your finances, and details about this can be found on our managing your money page.

In assessing if you are eligible for any financial assistance from us towards the cost of your care, the financial assessment means test will also look at your capital and/or savings, we must apply the upper and lower capital limits to these. The upper capital limit is currently set at £23,250 and the lower capital limit at £14,250. These limits are set by the Government.

How much financial assistance will I receive?

The principles that we apply when calculating how much financial assistance you may receive (if eligible) and how much you will pay for care and support services are set out within our charging policies, which meet the statutory guidance on charging for care and support in line with the Care and Support (Charging and Assessment of Resources) Regulations 2014 and as defined in the Care Act (2014).

Once we have agreed your care and support plan, you will need to have a financial assessment means test to see if you qualify for financial assistance. From this we will calculate how much financial assistance you may receive (if eligible) and how much you will pay.

To complete the financial assessment, we will ask you to give us full and detailed explanations/documents relating to your financial circumstances. Further information about the financial assessment, how it works and how to submit your information to us online can be found on our financial assessment calculator page.

Our financial assessment calculator can also be used to find out if you would be eligible for any financial assistance from the Council and how much you will have to pay towards care services, before you begin the care assessment process.

When we complete your Financial Assessment we will issue you with a backdated invoice to the first day that your care started. The invoice will be for your assessed charge.

How is my financial assistance worked out?

We will look at all your income and any savings you have. We will also look at any disability benefits you get to help you pay for the extra help or care you may need.

Capital and Savings

Only capital and savings over £14,250 will be counted in your financial assessment. We will include any amount over £14,250 to work out if you qualify for financial assistance.

From the information provided on your financial assessment, we work out how much financial assistance you may receive (if eligible) and how much you will pay. We call the amount you pay your assessed charge, and we calculate it on a weekly basis.

This is compared to the actual cost of the care you are receiving. You are then charged the lower of either your assessed weekly charge or the actual cost of the care. There is no set maximum weekly charge, and you won’t be asked to pay more than you can afford.

You will be asked to pay the full cost of the services you receive if one of the following applies to you:

• your capital is over £23,250
• you decide not to tell us about your financial circumstances
• you refuse to provide financial information in order for an assessment to take and/or refuse to take part in the assessment process

You will receive a letter or an email from us confirming the outcome of the financial assessment and any assessed charge you will need to pay. The letter summarises everything you will have told us about your finances, including details of your capital and savings, your expenditure in relation to household expenses and any expenditure in relation to your disability or health condition if this is applicable.

Our preferred way to communicate this information to you in is writing via email.

What happens if I do not provide the information required for my financial assessment?

We will assume you do not wish to continue with your application for financial assistance and you will therefore be charged for the full cost of your care and support.

If you have opted to have a direct payment so that you can arrange your own care and support, you will not be paid any money until a financial assessment has been completed.

Do I have to give my financial details?

If you receive care in your own home or within your community, you don’t have to provide any details of your income, capital or savings but if you don’t provide all the information required, you will not qualify for financial assistance and you will have to pay the full cost for your care and support. You may be asked to make your own arrangements for care.

What happens if I do qualify for financial assistance?

If you do qualify for financial assistance, we will contact you with a breakdown of how your financial assessment has been calculated. The letter explains how much money you have to pay towards the cost of your care home fees and what you need to do. We call the amount you pay your assessed charge.

Particular rules apply to investment bonds and if you hold such investments you are advised to seek advice from an independent financial advisor on how they will be taken into account.

If we have reason to believe you have disposed of any capital assets, to reduce the amount you will have to pay towards the cost of your care, we may take this capital into account as if you still have it.

What happens if I do not qualify for financial assistance?

If you do not qualify for financial assistance because your income or capital is too high, we will contact you to let you know.

The Council will send you a bill for any fees paid on your behalf whilst you were waiting for your full financial assessment to be completed. This is payable to the Council.

You must pay your care home or care provider directly for any ongoing care fees. We will tell you more about this when we contact you.