Domiciliary and homecare charges

To work out your charges we will look at your income, outgoings and capital, and then make certain allowances depending on your circumstances. From this we will work out how much you can afford to pay.

There are some types of income or capital that we have to ignore, in full or in part. This will happen automatically, but we usually need evidence to support this. We will let you know if we need more information or evidence from you. We still need to know about all of your income or capital, even if we then need to ignore it in the financial assessment.

Income

This will include, but is not limited to state benefits, occupational (work) pensions, annuity income, salary or wages, war pensions and war widows pensions.

Savings/capital

This includes bank/ building society accounts; National Saving Certificates; premium bonds stocks, shares and unit trusts; savings bonds; trust funds and any other savings you may have. It does not include the value of your home but may include the value of any other property you own.

Allowances/disregards

These include:

• personal allowances - this allowance is made so you have enough money to cover daily living costs. The amount is set by the Department of Health and is known as the Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG). The MIG is not one set amount, but rather is calculated based on your individual circumstances, such as whether you live alone or with others, your age, what disability benefits you may receive, whether you have children living with you and whether someone gets carers allowance for looking after you.
• The mobility component of Disability Living Allowance and mobility component of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) are fully disregarded in the financial assessment.
• Attendance Allowance/Care component of Disability Living Allowance (DLA-Care). If you receive the highest rate of one of these benefits, and if you do not receive any night-time care from the council, a part of these benefits is ignored in the financial assessment. The remainder of the benefit is included.
• Household expenses such as mortgage payments/rent, ground rent/service charge, Council Tax.

No allowances are made for normal costs of living. Examples where allowances are not usually made are shown below. This is not an exhaustive list and is only provided to illustrate the sort of costs we exclude from a financial assessment:

• water rates (except in exceptional circumstances)
• house contents and life insurance
• food (except in exceptional circumstances)
• cleaning products (except in exceptional circumstances)
• gas and electricity (unless your bills are higher than average due to a disability or illness)
• TV licence fee
• Telephone, mobile, broadband, and TV packages (e.g. Sky, Virgin Media, etc.)

Disability-related expenditure (DRE)

In addition to the various allowances that are taken into account in assessing your charge, if you have specific expenses in excess of "standard" living costs you may receive a further reduction in your charge for disability related expenses.

Those extra costs you have to pay because of your disability may include for example: extra heating, or the purchase, maintenance and repair of disability related equipment incontinence laundry costs or costs to address sensory impairment. 

The standard rates for DRE are as follows (2023/24 rates): 

• £6.58 if you are receiving the low or middle rate of disability living allowance, the standard rate of personal independence payment or the low rate of attendance allowance

• £13.16 if you are receiving the higher rate of disability allowance, the enhanced rate of personal independence payment or the high rate of attendance allowance

You have the right to appeal if you have expenses related to a disability that are higher than this.

Where you are making an appeal against the assessed charge on the grounds that your DRE exceeds the allowance included in your financial assessment, evidence of the expenditure should be supplied with the appeal.

Where possible the visiting officer will assess your charge at the end of the visit and tell you what it is and the date it will start.

You will receive a letter confirming the charge. If you have any queries about the amount you have been assessed to pay, you should get in touch with us. If you feel you are being asked to pay more than you can afford you can ask us to review the charge immediately. Full details of the appeals procedures are shown in the contributions policy for non residential care services.  

How your charge is calculated

There are two different calculations, which depend on how much capital you have. 

If you have more than £23,250 in capital, you will be required to pay for the full cost of your care as well as pay a weekly administration charge of £5.53.

If you have less than £23,250 in capital, then your financial assessment is calculated as follows:

If your maximum charge is less than £2.50, you will not be charged. If it is more than £2.50, this will be the most we can charge you each week. We will charge you less than your maximum charge if the cost of your services in a particular week is lower.

Tariff Income charge explained

The tariff income charge is an additional charge that gets applied if you have capital of more than £14,250 and less than £23,250. It is calculated by deducting £14,250 from the value of your capital and dividing the result by 250. The result is then rounded up to the nearest £1. 

For example, if you have £17,852.42 in capital, your tariff income charge will be: £17,852.42- £14,250 = £3,602.42. This is then divided by 250 to get £14.41. This is then rounded up to the nearest £1, so your tariff income charge will be £15.

After your financial assessment has been calculated

You will receive a letter confirming your charge, together with a breakdown of your financial assessment. If you have any queries about the amount you have been assessed to pay, you should get in touch with us using the contact details on the letter. If you feel you are being asked to pay more than you can afford you can ask us to review the charge immediately. Full details of the appeals procedures are shown in the contributions policy for non residential care services.