When you have created your care and support plan you will have a financial assessment. This is the final part of the assessment process.
If you are not able to pay for the full cost of your care, we will need to carry out a financial assessment with you to find out whether you will have to pay some money towards your support.
You can complete our financial assessment form on the link below to see how much you may need to contribute. The form can take up to 40 minutes to complete.
What does a financial assessment involve?
We will ask you for information about your income, capital and in some cases certain expenses that you may have so that we can calculate how much you are able to pay towards your care.
If you need to pay for residential care, the value of your property may also be taken into account.
We will contact you about how we can collect this information, this may be by telephone, postal form or a visit.
As part of this financial assessment, we will take into account capital that you own such as savings with a bank or building society, as follows:
| Savings | Contribution |
|---|---|
| Below £14,250 | We will not take these savings into account in the assessment |
| Between £14,250 and £23,250 | A tariff income of £1.00 for each £250 (or part of £250) and add this to your income used in the assessment |
| Above £23,250 | We will assess you as being able to pay the maximum contribution, no matter what other income and disability costs you may have. |
If you have other types of capital such as shares or bonds, we would include them in line with the council policy and government guidelines.
You may be able to claim benefits to increase your income, we can offer advice on this.
We can talk to you about some expenses you may have as a result of your care needs or disabilities. We call these ‘disability-related expenses’ and they may include things like exceptional laundry costs, or paying for certain equipment. These do not include what we consider to be normal daily living costs.
We will consider these items and may discuss them with you before we decide what amounts can or cannot be included as expenses that relate to your disability or care needs.
With the information, we will then be able to calculate whether or not you need to contribute towards your care and support.
What paperwork do I need for a financial assessment?
It’s helpful to have your financial information available when the officer calls or to complete any forms that we need. This will include things like:
- benefit award letters including state pension details and housing benefit award
- occupational pension details
- rent/mortgage and council tax details
- details of all bank/building society statements, savings accounts, PEPs, ISAs
- trust funds, bonds and any other income
Any recent receipts you may have for the following would also be useful:
- fuel bills
- disability equipment that you’ve recently bought
- invoices for privately arranged care bought directly by you
- essential purchases for care to be provided in your own home
Expenses that we will consider
When you complete the financial assessment we’ll add together the total amount of your income, capital and savings. We will include certain expenses such as housing costs for a mortgage or rent payments and council tax as well as appropriate disability-related expenses if you live at home.
In line with Government guidance, we will also deduct an allowance that represents the minimum income that you are expected to keep for your own personal expenses. If you live at home and have an assessment for a non-residential care service, the allowance is called the minimum income guarantee. If you are in residential care, the allowance is called the personal expense allowance.