Paying for your social care services

Your charges will depend on:

• The type of care you need. Some types of care are not charged at all and other types of care are chargeable
• Your personal financial circumstances. For chargeable care, you will need to pay towards the cost of the care, according to what you can afford. This might be nothing, a contribution, or the full cost of the care. We work out what you can afford by carrying out a means test called a Financial Assessment. This process is governed by the Care Act 2014

We start by arranging for a social care practitioner to carry out an assessment of your care needs. Find out more about adult social care eligibility.

This will establish whether you have eligible care needs and qualify for help, and what kind of care you need.

The way we charge for social care is laid out in our Adult Social Care Charging Policy, and is regulated by the Care Act 2014. Visit the Adult Social Care Charging Policy page to read more information about the policy, the Care Act 2014 and our annual charging rates.

The following types of care must be arranged free of charge, as set out in the Care Act 2014:

• Intermediate care, including reablement, for the first 6 weeks. Intermediate care is support provided for a short time to help a person increase their independence. It may be required after a fall, acute illness or hospital stay. Alternatively, it may be provided to allow the person to remain at home when they start to find things more difficult, or avoid going into hospital unnecessarily. More information is available from NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence)
• Community equipment (aids and other minor adaptations). Minor adaptations are those costing £1,000 or less
• Care and support provided to people with Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease
• After-care services/support provided under section 117 of the Mental Health Act 1983
• Any service, or part of a service, which the NHS is under a duty to provide. This includes Continuing Healthcare and the NHS contribution to Registered Nursing Care
• More broadly, any services which a local authority is under a duty to provide through other legislation
• Assessment of needs, financial assessment and working out a care and support plan
• The council will not charge for services provided directly to carers to support them. (This does not include respite care for the cared-for person)

The following types of care are always chargeable:

• Telecare (see Careline pricing structure). However, if the person also receives means-tested chargeable care (see below), the cost of Telecare may be taken into account during the financial assessment as a disability-related expense
• All other types of care, whether arranged by the council to meet eligible, unmet needs or other needs, are charged for. However, people are only charged what they can afford

If you need care which is chargeable, then a financial assessment will be completed. This process is governed by the Care Act 2014, and calculates how much you can afford to pay towards the cost of your care. This is your “maximum assessed contribution”.

If you choose not to complete a financial assessment you will be charged the full cost of your care.

You can submit a financial assessment enquiry using the form on our contact page.

Key points to note about the financial assessment

• If you have savings and capital above £23,250 you will need to pay the full cost of your care
• If you have savings and capital under £23,250 you will need to pay an amount up to your maximum assessed contribution, towards the cost of your care
• If you receive care at home, the value of your main residence is not counted as an asset, if you live there. But the value of any other properties that you own, jointly own, or have a beneficial interest in, will be taken in account
• If you go into a care home permanently, the value of any properties that you own may be counted as an asset.  If this applies to your main residence, we give you a 12-week period to decide what action to take, before we start counting it as an asset for charging purposes
• Once you’ve had a financial assessment, if your financial circumstances change, you need to let us know

Details about the financial assessment process can be found in our Factsheet: How Financial Assessments Work.

We have an online financial assessment portal, which you can use to submit the data and evidence documents we will request from you during your financial assessment.

You can also use this portal to obtain an indication of your likely contribution, even if you do not need care at the current time.

Bettercare also provides advice and guidance on applying for benefits.

You can find more information on our Bettercare page.

The following factsheets are available to explain various parts of the charging process:

• How charging works
• How financial assessments work
• How disability related expenses work
• Full cost customers and self-funders

Please see our contacts page.

We strongly recommend that you seek independent advice on paying for your care and the financial assessment process.

Please visit our independent help and advice page for more information.