Help completing Financal Assessment

[slammers55]

I am New here and would ask if anybody can gives advise with the following question. We share our house with our disabled son what percentage of the housing cost can we allocate to their benefit payments This is for our son's financial assessment.

[Charlie2750 Community friend]

Hello slammers55 and welcome to this community which is a treasure chest of answers for anxious parents and carers.

You dont say how old your son is? Do they really ask about housing costs for benefits?My son is 32 and lives with us and although I am not accurate I charge him £100 per week for board and lodging and other expenses .He cant argue because I control his money and he does not understand banking at all.Perhaps I am exploiting a weakness!

If your son is an adult then it may be just a simple matter of adding all your bills together and dividing by a third and putting that on the assessment.I am only talking about essential bills such as electricity, gas rent/mortgage council tax water and food but not your own personal extras like alcohol, cigarettes, credit cards or telephone calls.Telephone rental yes and sky if all of you watch that.Not your work expenses or travel unles he is travelling with you. There are lots of other minor expenses such as holidays and payment for his clubs and of course nearly forgot his clothing. When you have looked at that if it seems a lot try not to take all his benefits and bear in mind that some benefits may be reduced if he has savings above £6000 .After reading this comb through all the posts and search all the posts on here for similar responses.

I hope that helps a bit but please think about my advise I am not an expert just a parent and if your son is getting benefit in his name it is not just for him for pocket money it is to help with living expenses if he has a reduced income or cant work.

good luck

[Mazzamataz]

Hello and welcome.

I'm not sure you will get an absolute definite answer to your question here as all Countries of UK have different rules and requirements and even the authorities within those countries can be different.

As an overview and as an example only I will use where I work as a guideline, which is an authority in North Wales.

We will already have an amount disregarded for regular and normal outgoings like heating, electric, water, clothes, personal etc etc, this is termed 'the amount the government says you need to live on', similar to the term used by DWP.

My authority will then add something to that figure (not all do that) and that is the general allowance used for assessment, that is then used against all income to determine how much the person will pay toward their care. This again is where it differs, in Wales there is a maximum amount a person can pay for Dom care, no matter how much money they have, England is different.

Residential care is different again as is Nursing care.

However, what people do forget to put on assessments are expenses/costs incurred that are associated directly due to the persons disability. These can even be the general costs like heating, water, electric etc. For example, a person who is incontinent then that will mean higher water and electricity costs due to washing more, and also having to purchase more bedding.

A person might damage clothes, items, property etc, meaning 'extra' costs.

Any items that are bought that are specifically purchased due to the disability, anything at all, even food if the persons diet requirements significantly increases the usual food bill??

I've only used a couple of examples, there are many many circumstances and issues where a persons disability means there are extra costs. It is amazing how many people dont put these costs on the assessment, less amazing that in most cases the council dont ask about them? (I do!!)

However and as I said, everywhere is different.

You should get assistance from the council to complete it, make sure it is from a Finance officer as a lot of authorities just ask their social care staff to complete it and this can go wrong, they are not finance people?!

It might also be worth you looking for impartial help, possibly CAB, a Carers group, charities like Mind, British Red Cross, Mencap etc etc

I know it is long but hope this helps.

Any questions please reply.

Regards

Paul

[PeopleMatterIW]

Hello slammer55

This is not exhaustive but please have a look at this information which has been produced by People Matter IW and Carers IW:

Disability Related Expenditure

It is important that everyone who is financially assessed by the council to pay towards their care support can have any extra costs related to their disability considered as an allowance to potentially reduce their charge. This is known as “Disability Related Expenditure”.

Disability Related Expenditure is accepted by the council if it can be seen to meet a person’s care needs and can be evidenced by receipts.

Working out how much a person is required to pay towards their care support costs is reviewed periodically by the council’s Financial Assessment & Charging Team. You should let the council know if you have any extra costs that are related to your disability at that time.

The table on the next page is a list of disability related expenditure that the council should consider. The list does not include everything, so you should contact the council’s Financial Assessment & Charging Team if you feel there are any other costs that should be considered.

What can you do if you are not happy with your financial assessment?

• You can challenge the council if you don’t agree with a financial contribution assessment calculation.

• You must be involved in the financial contribution assessment; the council should ask you to provide information about your income, such as any benefits you receive and any ‘disability related expenditure’ (items and services you pay for that are ‘directly related’ to your disability).

The care and support plan may be a good starting point for considering what is necessary disability-related expenditure. However, flexibility is needed. What is disability-related expenditure should not be limited to what is necessary for care and support. For example, above average heating costs should be considered.

Disability Related Expenditure:

a) Costs of any privately arranged care services required.

b) Respite care.

c) Costs of any specialist items needed to meet the person’s disability needs, for example:

Day or night care which is not being arranged by the local authority.

Additional costs of bedding, for example, because of incontinence.

Specialist washing powders or laundry.

Internet access for example for blind and partially sighted people.

Additional costs of special dietary needs due to illness or disability (the person may be asked for permission to approach their GP in cases of doubt).

Reasonable costs of basic garden maintenance, cleaning, or domestic help, if necessitated by the individual’s disability and not met by social services.

Personal assistance costs, including any household or other necessary costs arising for the person. Any heating costs, or metered costs of water, above the average levels for the area and housing type, occasioned by age, medical condition or disability.

Special clothing or footwear, for example, where this needs to be specially made; or additional wear and tear to clothing and footwear caused by disability.

Purchase, maintenance, and repair of disability related equipment, including equipment or transport needed to enter or remain in work; this may include IT costs, where necessitated by the disability; reasonable hire costs of equipment may be included, if due to waiting for supply of equipment from the local council.

Other transport costs necessitated by illness or disability, including costs of transport to day centres, over and above the mobility component of DLA or PIP, if in payment and available for these costs.

In some cases, it may be reasonable for a council not to take account of claimed transport costs – if, for example, a suitable, cheaper form of transport, e.g. council-provided transport to day centres is available but has not been used.

In other cases, it may be reasonable for a council not to allow for items where a reasonable alternative is available at lesser cost. For example, a council might adopt a policy not to allow for the private purchase cost of continence pads, where these are available from the NHS.

This information has been jointly produced by People Matter IW and Carers IW. June 2018