Financial assessment

The Council employs a team of Welfare Rights Officers who can maximise your income by helping you to claim all the benefits which you are entitled to.  There is also a team of Community Finance Advisers who are responsible for completing financial asessment forms for customers receiving non–residential services.

Our Community Finance Advisers will talk to you to find out about your personal circumstances to find out what benefits you could be claiming.  They can also help you to fill in any forms, and when necessary refer you for further advice.

Fairer charging for home care and day care services

This information will tell you about Bedfordshire County Council's home and day care charging policy.

This policy is called fairer charging for non-residential services.  It was introduced in April 2003 and will be used to work out how much you will pay for your non-residential services, which have been provided or commissioned by our adult service.

Bedfordshire County Council's fairer charging policy is used to charge for the following services:

• Home care
• Day Care
• Supporting people services
• Direct payments

Your home care charge will be based on the number of hours of care you receive, your savings and weekly income. This is quite complicated as you will see from the explanation below. Please ring us during office hours for assistance.

These are three main components of the fairer charging for home care policy:

• All long-term charges must be based on the individual's income and savings unless the person chooses to pay the full cost.
• People who are assessed under a fairer charging scheme must be offered a benefit check.
• The council must take into consideration any additional costs you have to meet due to your disability.

People can also choose to pay the full cost of their care if they do not want to give us details of their income and savings.

Will you have to pay for home care?

You will get free home care and day care if your income and income from savings is less than or equal to income support/pension guarantee credit plus 25 per cent.  Income support and pension credit varies depending on your circumstances.

If you do not want to tell us about your income and savings

If you do not want to tell us about your income and savings then you need to fill in the agreement to pay full cost of care form. If you do this we will charge you based on the number of hours of home care service your receive and/or the costs for attending a day centre.

Housing-related support (Supporting people services) will be charged based on the cost of your service.

If you decide to pay the full cost of service we will not have the necessary information to undertake a benefit check, or to consider any disability related expenditure that you may be incurring.

You will get free home care and day care if your income and income from savings is less than or equal to income support/pension guarantee credit plus 25 per cent. Income support and pension credit varies depending on your circumstances.

Disability Related Expenditure Disregard (DRE)

When we work out your assessed charge we take into consideration any additional charges that you pay for services due to your disability.

We call this Disability Related Expenditure Disregard (DRE). When working out your DRE we take into account the extra costs you have because of your disability. This could include extra heating, laundry, transport costs etc.

How we will work out your charge

Income

We will look at your weekly income, of this we will ignore some benefits or income including:

• Mobility component (DLA)
• Earnings
• Any benefits paid to your children
• Any benefits paid solely to your partner
• Housing and council tax benefit

(Contact us for further information about benefits or income we do not take into account as income)

We will take all other income into consideration; this will include your attendance allowance at the lower rate or disability living allowance care component at the middle or lower rate.

Savings

We will ignore the first £12,750 of your savings.

We will ignore any savings held by your partner. Where you have a joint savings with a partner we will only take your half into consideration.

Where you have savings over £12,750 that are not ignored, we will assume a weekly income of £1.00 for every £250 over £12,750.

Partner's income

We will ignore all income belonging solely to your partner.

When we work out the fairer charge for one member of a couple we work out whether you will be better off assessed as a couple or single person.

Protected income

We add up your weekly income and any income from savings. From this, we have to ignore the part of your weekly income equal to income support/pension credit guarantee plus 25 per cent. This figure varies depending on your age, marital status and level of disability (see the table lower down this page).

We will deduct any DRE. This will result in your weekly charge.

Income support plus 25 per cent

Age and disability	Income support plus 25 %
18-24 with disability benefits	87.50
18-24 with higher DLA care	102.44
25-59 with disability benefits	102.44
29-59 with higher DLA care	117.38
60 and over	142.56

(Figures correct as at November 2006)

Financial/Welfare Benefits and Other Help:

Tel: (01234) 228057 /276030
Fax: (01234) 228622
Email: wrs@bedscc.gov.uk|