Financial Assessment for care home fees
If you do not have savings and capital over £23,250 you should qualify for financial assistance from Barnet Council. You will need to complete a form to help us work out how much you can and must pay and how much the council should contribute. We call this a Financial Assessment and we will ask you to provide details of your income and capital.
If you need continuous nursing care, this is assessed by NHS Barnet, and they will fund a fixed sum towards your care based upon a separate nursing care assessment.
On this page, you will find answers to the following questions:
- what if I do not want a Financial Assessment?
- how is the Financial Asessment carried out?
- how are my payments calculated?
- how much of my income must be used to pay for care home fees?
- what if I don't agree with the charge you work out?
- who can help me look after my money?
What if I do not want a Financial Assessment?
You do not have to tell us about your finances if you do not want to. However, if you do not tell us we will assume that you have capital of over £23,250 and charge you the full cost for your care.
How is the Financial Assessment carried out?
Your social worker or care manager will give you a financial declaration form. If you do not receive a form, please contact the Financial Assessment Team (details opposite) who will send one to you. You can also contact this team if you would like to arrange a visit to help you complete the form.
If you want, you can invite a family member or friend to be present during the visit. Alternatively, you can ask an advocate (representative) to help you. For more information on advocacy, please contact Advocacy in Barnet:
- Tel: 020 8201 3415
- Email: admin@advocacyinbarnet.org.uk
or Mind in Barnet
- Tel: 020 8343 5700
- Email: admin@mindinbarnet.org.uk
Your charges will start from the first date of your placement, so it is important that you complete the Financial Declaration form as soon as possible to prevent receiving a large initial invoice. You will need to provide bank and building society statements to confirm your savings and income, and payslips to confirm any occupational or private pensions.
We will also help you to claim any additional benefits that you may be entitled to. If you are aged 60 or over you may be entitled to Pension Credit, and if you are under 60 you may be entitled to Employment and Support Allowance or Income Support.
The Financial Assessment Team will send you a letter confirming how much you will have to pay towards the cost of your care and it will include a breakdown of the charges you will have to pay. The council reassesses the amount you have to pay every April. Please tell us if there is a change in your income or capital during the year so we can reassess your contribution.
How are my payments calculated?
The Financial Assessment will identify:
- Your capital (including for example your savings, and the value of any share you have in your home)
- Your income (including certain benefits that you receive).
The amount of your contribution will then be calculated in the following way:
- If you have more than £23,250 in capital, you must pay your care home charges in full.
- If your capital is between £14,250 and £23,250, you will be charged based on the income you receive (minus some elements which you are allowed to keep). In addition, you will have to pay a ‘tariff income’ (a small weekly sum to reflect the amount of capital above £14,250 which you have).
- If your capital is £14,250 or less, you will be charged based on the income you receive (minus some elements which you are allowed to keep), but you will not be charged a tariff income.
Your contributions will be assessed by reference to your income and your capital. We are generally not allowed to take into account the income or capital of your family members of friends when calculating how much you must pay. However, we may ask for details of the finances of your friends and relatives in order to ascertain how your finances stand. For example, if you say that your home is jointly-owned, but it is registered in your name, you may have to provide evidence of the proportion of a relative’s claimed share in the ownership of the home.
Paying or contributing to your care home charges is likely to reduce the amount of capital (including savings) that you have.
If your capital is falling, you should always keep Barnet Council informed when it is about to reach £23,000, and regularly thereafter, so that we can take this into account when re-assessing the amount you have to pay for your care home charges.
For full information, please contact the Financial Assessment Team on 020 8359 2238. You can also refer to the Charging for Residential Accommodation Guidelines (CRAG) on the Department of Health website.
How much of my income must be used to pay for my care home fees?
If you have £23,250 or less in capital, you will always get to keep some element of your income for personal use. For example, this will include:
- A ‘personal expenses allowance’, designed to give you money to spend as you choose, for example on personal items, or on small gifts for relatives. It will almost always be £22.30 per week, but in special circumstances, Barnet Council may allow you more.
- Certain amounts from some of the benefits you receive
- Certain amounts from some pensions you receive.
The rules state in some detail which forms of income you can keep for yourself, and which must be paid towards your care costs. It is important that you provide as much detail as possible to the council about the source of all the money which you receive, and keep us updated about any changes to your different kinds of income, so that we can calculate exactly how much you are entitled to keep, otherwise you may lose out. Please contact the Financial Assessment Team on 020 8359 2238 for more details.
What if I don’t agree with the charge you work out?
When we write to tell you about the charge we have worked out we will explain how it has been calculated. If you feel that the amount we have worked out is not correct, please check the information we have given to make sure the figures we have used are right. If there are any errors or you are not sure about something in our letter, please contact the Financial Assessment Team straight away so we can look at your assessment again. If we have made a mistake, we will be able to correct the charge and let you know the new amount to pay.
If we do not agree that your charge is wrong we will write explaining in more detail why the charge is correct, and will let you know what your further appeal rights are. We will however ask you to continue paying your charge.
Who can help me to look after my money?
If you are unable to manage your own finances, you may ask a friend or relative to act on your behalf. If you do not have someone who can assist you and you have no savings and your only income is from benefits, including State Pensions, then Barnet Council can appoint someone to look after your finances. This person will become responsible for claiming and receiving your benefit payments on your behalf and will pay the council your contribution for your care.
You may want to consider seeking advice regarding granting Lasting Power of Attorney to someone who could make decisions on your behalf should you lose mental capacity in the future. A Lasting Power of Attorney can be appointed to make decisions regarding your finances or your health and welfare. A solicitor or the Public Guardianship Office will be able to advise. For more information you can contact the Office of Public Guardian.
Short or temporary stays in a care home
Going into a care home so that your carer can have a break is known as respite care. Respite stays are for up to 8 weeks in a year.You should contact the Financial Assessment Team for information about charging for respite stays.
If you stay longer than 8 weeks then your respite stay becomes a short or temporary placement. We will then carry out a financial assessment as if your placement were permanent, with the exception that the value of your property is disregarded (not taken into account in calculating your financial contribution) up to the first 12 weeks of the temporary stay on the assumption that it is intended that you will be returning home or be purchasing a new property.
Data protection
The information that you give us is kept by the Financial Assessment Team who work out your charges. It is only used to work out how much you will have to pay for any service we arrange, not to decide whether or not you can have a service. Councils are required to make sure that we use public money properly, so for this purpose only we may use the information you provide for the detection and prevention of fraud. We may also share the information you give us with other public bodies that look after public monies but only for the same reason. With your permission we may also share this information with the Department for Works and Pensions in order to ensure you are receiving all benefits to which you are entitled.
Email this pageLast modified by: Dawn Rowe on 22/10/2010