Does anyone know what receipts we need to prove with a fanacial assessment.
My son has autism and one of his obssessions is to buy snacks from supermarkets which he stores at home and does not always eat. He will give them away to make space for new ones. I collected all the receipts but when i presented the total he can spend in any one week , it was disgarded. Does this not count as DRE? It is part of his autism. The list is endless on what he spends weekly, some are funded by us as his money would not cover everything. If he needed a wheelchair this would clasify as a DRE. It appears that hidden disabilities count for nothing.
We are trying to cut down on what he spends but it is not easy.
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Lucacielle
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Does your son have mental capacity ? If he does then that’s difficult if he doesn’t then you could apply for a deputyship to manage his finances and property and his health and well-being. I would speak to the Autism society and or social services or the Mencap helpline
I applied for both online property and finance and then health and well-being it’s very expensive to go through a solicitor so if you go on the gov.uk website that’s where the forms need to be completed. Good luck they’re not the easiest of forms but they’re manageable.
Hi there. Unfortunately the charging regulations under the Care Act give each individual Local Authority a lot of discretion over what they take into consideration when doing a financial assessment so each individual LA treats this slightly differently.
Whether you have Deputyship or not will have no impact at all on the outcome of that assessment as the Finance team have to follow their charging policies and the legal framework of the Care Act, when deciding what to charge you in order to apply the rules ‘fairly’.
I would suggest that you either google or ask for, a copy of your LA’s own specific charging Policy(every LA has to have one by law and let you see it) if you haven’t already done so. This will give you a general idea of what they count as income and expenditure. It doesn’t matter if you, rather than your son, paid for items, they are still DRE. Then, in answer to your first question, you need to keep receipts for absolutely everything. A LA is not obliged to include any DRE that you cannot evidence.
Finance teams have to have a set of rules to work from - they assess the elderly, physically disabled, those with mental health issues as well as people with Learning Disabilities so might not have a lot of understanding of the issues we face. They tend to have blanket policies like ‘we don’t include Carer’s meals as DRE’ but this is unlawful as they have to consider the expenditure in light of the individual’s specific disability. In my experience, their first response is to refuse any items that are not on their standard list but will often allow them if you appeal. If you didn’t have receipts there is not much you can do, but if you did have receipts to show the assessor, I would suggest that you find out who manages your Finance and Benefits team and then write/email them if you haven't already to ask that they review their decision to refuse these items. If any professional is aware of your son’s obsessions etc you could ask that they speak to that person to help inform their decision. Perhaps ask them to outline/clarify their reasons for not considering this expenditure to be a part of your son’s disability.
Hi there, I've just sent in my appeal against the financial assessment decision. My 43 year old daughter has LD and Autism. Unless you live with it it's impossible to explain all the complexities. Something lost or broken is a disaster and has to be replaced immediately but in a way so that she doesn't know its a replacement.My daughter smokes and I just know the assessors are not going to count this in her cost of living, but to me that's discriminatory.
Impossible and unrealistic to save every single receipt, you would collect hundreds over a year and I'm damn sure they wouldn't spend the time checking each and every one.
It's often a case of if they can't satisfy their obsessions it can have an impact on their mental health ..... and ours !!
Good luck, I will be putting the results of my appeal on here, we all need to stick together on these financial assessments and get a fairer "rule of thumb"
P.S. I do have Deputyship for heath and finance, it doesn't make any difference to the assessment but is well worth getting for many other very important reasons.
I had the DRE review for my son at the start of this year, he is severely autistic, SLD, nonverbal. Due to this he has alot of expenses that are DRE - a huge amount of balloons per month over 200, fuel for car both motability and PA's who takes him out (regularly taken for a drive often 3 times a day to help calm) outdoor clothing and shoes due to lots of walking, fast food obsession etc. I kept all receipts from age 18.They weren't sure they could include all as DRE and needed confirmation from someone else, his adult social worker confirmed everything. These things are important for his mental health helping extreme anxiety, as parents we do everything we can to keep on an even keel, or like many the consequences can be very distressing for everyone.
Many dont understand, its up to us to make them understand that mental health needs are as valid as physical health needs.
My son now goes swimming 4 times a week, he wants to go every night as part of his daily routine. This is a recent thing hopefully they will take that into consideration when i present the receipts at the next financial assessment.
It is so exhausting having to keep all receipts, photocopying etc...The list is endless and im sure what they get in benefits is not enough to cover the obsessions they have. Try explaining that to the authorities!!
All my son's budget goes on helpers. Despite having to have heating on more so than when we were out at work and school years ago. They just have a set amount at the local authority for things. I have to keep my young adults immune systems healthy and have sought private alternative health from a nutritionist. Without her help I could not have managed. The Finance Team said the money we spend on supplements is like private health care?? I said it's nothing of the sort. It's our own money we are spending not there's but if we weren't around to look after their health needs, they wouldn't even be allowed to have the essentials that they need. I was so upset and had to put in costings and they still wanted more. At this point I gave up putting in more costings. But I know it'll come back at me one day unfortunately.
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