Adult Social Care

How much people pay for care services

To work out how much people should pay towards their care costs, we use a financial assessment (means test).

The amount a person must pay each week is based on two calculations:

  • Assessed income
  • Contribution amount

Calculating assessed income

We look at your total income but ignore any earnings from employment. We take away:

  • an amount equal to the value of Income Support/Guaranteed Credit, plus 25% of this amount.
  • Disability Living Allowance (mobility component)
  • standard weekly disability related expenditure allowance (£24.16)
  • We exclude 10% of the remaining income.

The amount that is left is your assessed income. We use this amount to calculate how much you should contribute.

Contribution amount

To work out your assessed contribution amount, we add up:

  • the number of care hours that you receive at the relevant contribution rate per hour
  • the number of days that you attend day services at the contribution rate per day

The total is your contribution amount and the lower of these two calculations will be your assessed contribution. This will be the amount you are asked to pay towards your care costs.

Example scenarios

Dorothy

Dorothy is 67 and her weekly income is £310. She attends a day centre 3 times per week, with a capped cost of £64.12. During the financial assessment we ignore the following income for Dorothy:

  • £184.44 Pension Credit Guarantee plus 25%
  • £24.16 Standard weekly allowance for disability costs
  • £20.52 Savings credit
  • £26.85 Night Care element of Attendance Allowance

This leaves a total assessable income of £53.03.

Dorothy's maximum weekly contribution is calculated on 90% of her total assessable income which is £47.73.

Dorothy will not be asked to contribute any more than this towards the cost of her care while her income remains at this level.

Carl

Carl is 51 and his weekly income is £288.19 which includes Employment Support Allowance (ESA) and Personal Independence Payments (PIP). He receives night time care 7 nights per week and community support which costs the local authority £2,274.25.

During the financial assessment, we ignore the following income for Carl:

  • £156.35 Personal Living Allowance plus 25%
  • £24.16 Standard weekly allowance for disability costs

This leaves a total assessable income of £107.68.

Carl's maximum weekly contribution is calculated on 90% of his total assessable income which is £96.91.

Carl will not be asked to contribute any more than this towards the cost of his care whilst his income remains at this level.

Hourly rate for care

  • We charge £10 per hour for personal care.
  • Day centre charges are £16.03 per day.
  • Transport charges (taxis and buses) cost £3.09 per journey, up to a maximum of £10.30 per week.

Weekly charges

The maximum weekly charge is £500. From October 2023 the maximum weekly charge will be removed completely.

This means that if your care should cost £800, for example, the maximum you will pay is £500. Then from October 2023 you will pay the full £800 if you have the capital and income to do so, following a financial assessment.

Things we don't charge for

We are not allowed to charge for all the services we organise. This includes:

  • Reablement services for a period of up to 6 weeks. Your services would become chargeable when your period of reablement ends.
  • Equipment and minor adaptations to someone's home (usually costing less than £1,000)
  • Services for people with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)
  • Services provided under section 117 of the Mental Health Act
  • Services which the NHS is under a duty to provide or fund, for example continuing healthcare
  • Medication prompts (if received in isolation of other chargeable services)
  • Commode emptying (if received in isolation of other chargeable services)