How much is it going to cost?
The County Council makes a charge for home care. Our financial assessment process ensures that the charge is related to your ability to pay.
If you have more than £22,250 in capital (2008/9 rate), or if you do not want to tell us what capital you have, you will pay the full charge for services.
If you have less than this capital limit then, in most cases, you will have an assessment of your finances.
How the assessment works
One of our Finance and Benefits Assessors (FABA) will make an appointment to come and see you so that they can record information about your finances.
Firstly the FABA will calculate your total weekly income.
They will take away from this a sum equivalent to the minimum weekly amount the government says you need to live on plus 25%. This makes sure that, whatever charges you have to pay, you will be left with a reasonable sum of money for your other expenses.
If you receive disability benefits and incur any costs as a direct result of your disability, we will deduct a further sum.
Reasonable housing costs will also be deducted.
What you are left with will be your ‘chargeable income’.
The amount you will pay will depend on the actual cost of the services and your income. You cannot be charged more than your chargeable income. The cost of home care services, for instance, is currently £16.26 an hour. If you had 10 hours of home care, the full cost would be £162.60.
- If your chargeable income was £20, you would pay only £20.
- If your chargeable income was £200, you would pay the whole £162.60.
- If you did not have any chargeable income you would not have to pay anything.
If your financial circumstances change, you will need to let us know so that we can recalculate what you have to pay.
Welfare Benefits
The FABA will also offer you a benefits check. They will advise you on what welfare benefits you might be entitled to and will help you claim any which you are not currently getting.
For information about charging for permanent residential or nursing care see our page on Financial Assessment.
For details of charges for other services see our Charges Leaflet.
Age Concern England and Help the Aged produce factsheets on this subject linked from the right of this page.