Paying for care in your own home

There are three ways that care in your own home may be paid for:

• The person being cared for (or their family or a friend) pays the full cost of their care. This is called ‘self-funding’
• The local authority pays for some or all of the care
• Sometimes the NHS may also contribute to the cost of all or some of the care

Some care and support services are free of charge, but you may need to pay for other types of services. See our information on which services you might have to pay for.

If we are commissioning care on your behalf it will be delivered through a County Council contracted provider. The cost of your care depends on the level of care you need. Your social worker will agree a care and support plan with you. It will focus on meeting your individual outcomes.

The provider is paid for the service agreed in your care and support plan. There may be times when this is delivered flexibly over a week. This may not reflect the exact times outlined in your plan. But the planned and actual time delivered should balance out over a period of a week. For example, your plan may show that you need 30 minutes support a day. On two days this week your care provider manages to achieve everything in 25 minutes. But on one day they need 40 minutes. So your care and support for this week will still total the same as if you received 30 minutes care each day.

There may also be occasions where your social worker agrees extra hours to meet your needs. This may result in an additional charge to cover the cost.

You may find the level of support you need drops or you may need more support on a regular basis. Discuss this with your social worker so they can review your needs. They can then make changes to the service commissioned with the care provider.

Before we decide if you are eligible for financial assistance, assessment of your care needs is carried out. If you have ‘eligible needs’ that qualify for help from us, your care practitioner will ask our Financial Assessments and Benefits Team to contact you to carry out a financial assessment. This is to establish if you can pay for the care in full or whether the County Council will contribute towards the cost of your care.

To qualify for any help towards the cost of your care at home, you must have assessable savings and/or capital below the current threshold of £23,250 and/or your income must be less than the amount we agree to pay for your care.

If you are eligible for services, we will work with you to develop a personal support plan to establish the services needed to support you to remain at home. The sum allocated to cover the cost of meeting your eligible care needs is your personal budget. Your financial assessment will ascertain how much you need to contribute towards this budget.

Your contribution is calculated by looking at your assessable income and capital and deducting a government-set allowance (the minimum income guarantee) for everyday living costs. The 'minimum income guarantee' is an allowance given in the assessment to cover the costs of everyday living. This allowance is taken from government guidance and will depend on your age, disability and family circumstances. We will then look at your share of any housing costs (mortgage, rent and council tax net of any related benefits).

We then consider any disability-related expenditure you have told us about. Once we have all the information available, we will calculate how much assessable income you have remaining to contribute towards your care costs. Your assessable income is the amount that is left after standard outgoings are paid for and an allowance is made for general living costs such as good, utility bills and clothes.

As care costs may vary, we work out the maximum that you are assessed to pay. This is called your Maximum Weekly Contribution (MWC). If the actual cost of care received between a Monday and Sunday is lower than this, you only pay the lower amount.

Please note that your contribution is a maximum weekly amount, which cannot be pro-rated/divided into a daily contribution.

More information about how we work out what you need to pay is available.

We carry out our financial assessments in line with national rules and guidance set by central government. These are the same standards used by all councils that charge for care services. However, if you feel we have not taken account of something important in the financial assessment, please contact the Financial Assessments and Benefits Team at [email protected]. If you do not have access to email, please call 01962 845600.

If you still feel the charge is more than you can afford, you may want to seek independent advice from the Society of Later Life Advisers. Phone 0333 2020 454.

We can still take it into account if we think you did this to avoid paying for care services. This includes giving away property or money to someone else or spending money on expensive possessions, holidays or gifts.

In some circumstances, if you give someone your property or money, they may be liable for some or all of the costs of your care (for example, if you gave away an asset or sold an asset for less than its true value).

During the financial assessment, you will have to sign a declaration that you haven’t spent or given away your money or property to avoid paying for care services.

Further information about deprivation of assets.

The financial assessment will help identify any welfare benefits you may be entitled to claim. It is important that you claim any benefits to which you are entitled as this could provide extra money to help contribute towards the cost of your care.

If you have a partner, to complete a full benefits check, we will need to see details of your partner's income and capital.

You can find out what benefits you may be entitled to on the Connect to Support Hampshire website.

Extra costs due to your disability can be considered in your financial assessment. We will help you identify any extra costs that can be considered, which have not been included in your personal budget. We may ask you to provide proof of these. If you do not want to discuss these costs you do not have to.

The following list will give you an idea of the types of costs we can consider:

• Community alarm system
• Extra laundry costs
• Additional costs for clothing, footwear or bedding
• Medical dietary requirements (for the difference if more expensive than regular products)
• Approved personal care you wish to continue to pay for privately
• Private payments for cleaning and domestic help
• Disability-related equipment
• Transport costs incurred due to your illness or disability (where not covered by the mobility component of benefits)

You can choose to receive some or all of your Personal Budget as a Direct Payment. This puts you in control of your care. You can employ people, or buy the services or equipment you choose, to provide the help that you need. You can receive Direct Payments as an alternative to having services from the County Council.

If you receive a Direct Payment, you will still be expected to pay your assessed contribution towards services you choose to purchase. Your contribution will be deducted from any Direct Payment you receive from the County Council and you will need to pay your assessed contribution into your Direct Payment account.

If your assessed contribution is more than your agreed Direct Payment, or you are assessed to pay the full cost of any care and support, you will not be entitled to receive Direct Payments.

There are several different options, including Direct Debit, online payments and telephone payments. Detailed information is provided on the back of your invoice.

Direct Debit

You can set up a Fixed Direct Debit with your bank or building society and the amount is automatically deducted from your account every month or four-weekly until you cancel the arrangement. Fixed Direct Debits are a set monthly amount and are normally reviewed annually. If your care or contribution amounts change, the Fixed Direct Debit will not change automatically and you will need to contact us to have the payment amounts updated.

It’s important to remember that services are meeting assessed needs and are booked for an individual. Where the County Council has incurred a cost, it is reasonable to expect the service user to pay their full or partial contribution. With this in mind, if you know that you will not require your service for a period of time you need to give the County Council at least four weeks' notice of this.

If you have to pay for the full cost of your care (e.g. if you have savings over the 'capital threshold'), you can still ask us to make the arrangements for your care at home services.

We can enter into a contract to pay the provider on your behalf and you will need to pay us for all the costs incurred. If we agree to enter into a contract with your care provider, you will be charged a one-off brokerage fee of £296 and then £8.75 per week thereafter to cover our administration costs.

If you are paying the full cost of you care, we always recommend that you seek independent financial advice (see below) and check whether you are entitled to claim any benefits. (e.g. Attendance Allowance, Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Payment).

You may be eligible for funding through a health fund called NHS continuing healthcare. This is care that is arranged and funded solely by the NHS for individuals who are not in hospital but have been assessed as having a ‘primary health need’. There are very high eligibility criteria for this payment.

If you think this may apply to you, you should speak to your doctor or district nurse.

Care charges will apply until any NHS funding is confirmed.

Paying for care can be an expensive and open-ended commitment. If you are paying the full cost of care yourself, you should seek independent financial advice. Look for a financial adviser with specialist qualifications on advising on the funding of long-term care. They will be able to explain all the costs and risks involved and should be able to help with other things such as setting up a Lasting Power of Attorney.

If you are currently receiving care it is still advisable to seek specialist information and advice as there may be options available to you to protect your interests and those of your family.

• MoneyHelper gives advice about all aspects of paying for care. Phone 0800 138 7777
• The Society of Later Life Advisers (SOLLA) is a not-for-profit consumer organisation that aims to assist consumers and their families in finding accredited independent financial advisers who understand financial needs in later life. Phone 0333 2020 454

See information about Invoice payment, enquiries and disputes.

If you have any questions about the invoices we have sent for the care we arrange on your behalf, please contact Adults' Health and Care by completing an online enquiry form.

The County Council has a Debt recovery process that it follows in cases where debt has occurred.