Who this affects

The issues on which we are consulting may affect:

• people who are receiving social care services and are living in their own home and who are either -
  • assessed as needing to pay the full cost of their care and who choose the Council to arrange this care. These people currently pay us an administrative fee; or
  • aged 18 to 64 on higher rate disability-related benefits who are assessed as needing to contribute to the cost of their care package

The consultation will result in changes to our charging policy and the amounts individuals pay. 
 

Why we are making the changes

• an individual complained about our charging policy. The issues they raised were considered by the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman, who investigates complaints against local authorities. The Ombudsman ruled that the way we calculate charges for arranging care services is unfair. The Ombudsman found that some people could end up paying more than the actual cost of providing their services
• there has also been a legal challenge against another council. Its charging policy was found to be discriminatory because it could have resulted in higher charges for people with severe disabilities compared to those with less severe disabilities  

We have reviewed our Charging Policy to address both of these points and we are proposing a revised policy. Our aim is to make the policy fairer.

We would like to hear your views on the proposed revised policy before we make a final decision to adopt it.

What we considered

Government legislation and regulations

• the Government has given councils the power to charge people what they are financially assessed as being able to afford towards the cost of their care. Councils can decide not to charge or charge people less than suggested
• councils cannot charge people more than it costs to arrange the care
• councils can charge people who have been financially assessed as being able to afford to pay the full cost of their packages a charge for arranging the care package
• very few councils do not charge for home care or personal care service. If they do not charge, council taxpayers will pay more to meet those costs    

We believe that the Council’s current financial situation means we need to charge:

• those people who are financially assessed as being able to pay a contribution for their services
• those people who are financially assessed to pay the full cost of their care services for the cost of arranging care   

We considered taking into account only part of what people can afford to pay. However, we do not believe this is affordable as it would cost the Council up to £300,000 in lost income.

Options we have considered for calculating our administrative charges

Our aim is to put a policy in place that takes account of:

• the fixed costs of arranging a care package - which is the same regardless of the size
• the variable costs - which increase with the size of the package

Options we considered to address the unfairness to people on higher rate disability benefits

• how we calculate care charges for those on higher rate Personal Independence Payments (PIP) or higher rate Disability Living Allowance (DLA) compared to those who have the same level of income from their employment. This is an issue because government regulations require us to disregard income from employment but allow us to take account of income from benefits
• the Minimum Income Guarantee - the amount of money we must leave you to live on when we calculate our charges
• the extra money people need to pay to live due to their disability, for example, extra travel costs
• what benefits we take into account

Our proposals

The proposal on which we are consulting involves moving to an arrangement and management charge to arrange care for those who are paying the full cost of their care. This would be set in bands based on the number of hours of care individuals receive a week.

These charges would apply to those who can afford to fund their own care.

Proposed arrangement and management charges

* The lowest and highest charges under the current policy will vary depending on the smallest and largest number of hours commissioned.

We are also proposing to:

• put an appeals process in place for people who believe their charges are unfair. This will give you the opportunity to have your arrangement and management charge reviewed by a senior manager in Adult Social Care to ensure the impact of your individual circumstances are taken into account
• increase the amount of minimum income guaranteed by 8.8% for people aged 18 to 64 on higher rate disability benefits
• review our procedures to make sure that all those who receive disability benefits, who we financially assess as needing to contribute to the cost of their care package, know how we take account of the extra costs of their disability when calculating this amount
• continue our current policy of disregarding the difference between the middle and top rate of Personal Independence Payments (PIP) because we believe that this helps to address the injustice highlighted in the legal challenge to another council’s charging policy

How the proposals would affect people who use our service

* These people may be affected in the future if their financial circumstances change.

Examples showing how the proposal would affect a range of people who use the service are included in this pack. Under the proposed banding charges, service users will never be charged more than the actual arrangement cost for any care package.