Help with support charges 2007�08

Supporting People Help with support charges 2007–08 Supporting People Help with support charges 2007– 08 This booklet explains how you can get financial help for the support service you receive. It also gives you all the information you need about support charges and paying for them. The booklet is split into three sections for easy reference. Section 1 Supporting People – what is it? . . . . . . 3 How does it affect me? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 What do I do next? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Section 2 What is the support charge? . . . . . . . . . 5 Frequently asked questions . . . . . . . . . 6 Section 3 Financial assessments . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 What is counted as income? . . . . . . . . . 9 What is not counted as income? . . . . . . 9 What is counted as capital?. . . . . . . . . . 10 Is my property included as capital? . . . 10 What is not counted as capital? . . . . . . 10 1 Extra cost of disability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 What sort of additional expenditure is counted? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Housing and council tax costs. . . . . . . . 12 Other frequently asked questions. . . . . 12 Still not sure? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 What if I’m still not satisfied? . . . . . . . . 14 Statement on confidentiality . . . . . . . . 14 Statement on personal information . . 15 Equal opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Contacting the Supporting People team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Information for support providers/ landlords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 2 Section 1 Supporting People – what is it? Since April 2003, the Supporting People programme has funded ‘housing-related’ support services in the London Borough of Hillingdon. The main purpose of these services is to help you to live as independently as possible. This means paying for things like: • wardens in sheltered accommodation; • support staff in hostels; • support staff in accommodation for people with learning disabilities, mental health needs or young people; • support services, which can be provided in your own home. How does it affect me? If you receive housing benefit for all or some of your support charge you do not have to pay your support charge yourself. The Supporting People fund, administered by the council, will pay this for you. If you pay for your support charge, you will continue to pay for it. However, if you are on a low income, you may be able to have the support charge reduced. This will involve asking for a financial assessment (a means test). 3 What do I do next? • If you are on housing benefit, you don’t need to do anything. The Supporting People fund will pay your support charge. • If you are not on housing benefit, you should pay any support charge shown on your rent statement. • If you can’t afford to pay the full amount, ask your warden or support worker to give you a financial assessment form to complete. This booklet will take you through the next steps if you have requested a financial assessment or are wondering whether to do so. It explains how the process works and what a financial assessment entails. 4 Section 2 What is the support charge? If you ask for a financial assessment, we will assess your income and work out what you can afford to pay for the support you get. Any charge will be based on your income, savings and disability related expenditure. Charges are as follows: 1 If you have more than £21,500 savings or investments if you live alone, or £43,000 if for a couple living together, you will be charged the full cost of your support. 2 If you have less than £21,500 savings or investments you should ask us to financially assess you to work out how much, if anything, you should pay. You will either pay the full charge for your support or the ‘assessed charge’, whichever is the lower. 3 If you are on a low weekly income, for example, income support only, you will qualify for free support if the total amount of your weekly income is less than these thresholds: • Pensioners – 60+ £148.81 • Adults 25 – 59 £120.88 • Adults 18 – 24 £105.50 These thresholds will change each April, in line with annual changes in benefits. Remember: If you receive housing benefit the Supporting People fund will pay your support charge. 5 Frequently asked questions What if I don’t want to tell you about my finances? You don’t have to. You can instead choose to pay the full charge yourself. I don’t like filling in forms – how will I know whether it’s worth all the bother? If you have savings of less than £21,500 (£43,000 for couples) and an income of less than the three thresholds stated on page 5 under point 3, you may qualify for some help with your support charge. If you have a higher income, and high expenses, you may also receive some help. If in doubt its worth asking for a financial assessment form or telephoning the team who deal with it. I live with someone else. Whose income are you assessing? The support charge is what you pay for the service in your home. If you live with another person and you pay your rent between you, you will pay one support charge, which will cover you both. In the few cases where people live together but pay their rent separately, we will need to do separate assessments. 6 I already pay the council for my home care or day care. Will I have to pay extra for my support charge as well? Some people who live in sheltered housing also receive home care or day care from the council. Each person’s finances are assessed individually. In some cases there will be one charge which covers a combination of the services. This will depend on their income. Who do I pay my support charge to? You will pay your provider direct at the same time as you pay your rent. What if I pay for my home care or day care as well as my support charge? We will write to you and explain what you need to pay and to whom. 7 Section 3 Financial assessments If you have less than £21,500 savings or investments if you live alone, or £43,000 if you are a couple, you should provide information on your finances and expenses so we can work out your support charge. What we do is look at the amount of money you have coming in each week, then compare this with the amount you have to spend. We take into account benefits such as attendance allowance or disability living allowance (care component), and weigh these against additional money you have to spend because of your disability, illness or age. We also take into account your rent and council tax payments. This gives us a figure we call your ‘net assessable income’, from which we can work out your charge. If you live with another person as a couple and you pay your rent between you, you will pay one support charge, which will cover you both. When you fill in the financial assessment form, we ask you to write in both sets of income and expenditure. 8 What is counted as income? Any money you receive in benefits including: • Pension gaurantee credit • Income support • Attendance allowance • Invalidity benefit • Disability living allowance (care element) • Social fund payments • Disability working allowance. Also any private pension, annuity income, or other regular income from investments. Savings between £13,000 – £21,499 will be calculated at a tariff level of £1 per £250. (That means for every £1,000 you have over £13,000, we count as £4 weekly income. Please note this is a tariff calculation and is not meant to represent the level of interest you can earn on this capital.) What is not counted as income? We do not count the mobility element of disability living allowance, or council tax benefit. We also disregard the difference between the higher and lower rate of attendance allowance (care component), and higher and middle rate of disability living allowance (care component). 9 War widows special payments are also disregarded and the pension savings credit element of your pension credit. What is counted as capital? • Any savings account, building society, bank deposit, Post Office Savings Bank, National Savings etc. • Investments, stocks, shares, unit trusts, TESSAs, PEPs, ISAs, Premium Bonds etc. • Investment in property (except if you own the main home that you live in), building and land. Any rental income will be included as income under income from investments. • Capital held on your behalf by another party, such as the Court of Protection, or your spouse/partner (where the capital is held by one partner but the other has a beneficial interest). Is my property included as capital? No, the value of your main home is not included as capital. If you have other properties or rental income from them, these are included as capital. What is not counted as capital? Compensation to ex-Japanese prisoners of war. 10 Extra cost of disability If you have or would be eligible for an attendance allowance (care component) or disability living allowance (care component), we will take your disability related expenditure into account. If you are not eligible for either of these benefits, we are unable to take those extra costs into account. We will ask you in the financial assessment about what you spend as a consequence of your disability or frailty. What sort of additional expenditure is counted? The idea is to look at your essential additional expenditure, over and above normal household bills. We will consider the extra cost of: • specialist washing powders or bedding; • special dietary costs; • special clothing or footwear or wear and tear of these; • cost of a private cleaner or domestic help including shopping; • privately arranged care services, such as a personal assistant or carers; • respite care including holiday related expenditure. This means that if you take a holiday as part of your respite care, with or without your carer, we will take this into account; 11 • buying specialist disability related equipment; • transport costs, if you do not receive help with mobility costs or if transport costs are exceptionally high. We will make allowances up to the equivalent of lower rate attendance allowance or middle rate disability living allowance (currently £43.15) towards your disability related expenditure. We will ask you to send us bills to prove how much you spend on these items so we can assess what allowances to make. This will allow us to work out your charge. Housing and council tax costs If you have your finances assessed, we will take into account your housing and council tax costs, including: • mortgage payments; • rent; • council tax net of any council tax benefit. Other frequently asked questions How quickly should I complete the financial assessment form? You will be expected to pay the full support charge until we receive your financial assessment form and advise you of the 12 charge; you benefit if you return it as quickly as possible. Where can I get a financial assessment form? You can get a financial assessment form by telephoning the financial assessment team on 01895 250597 or 01895 556865 and they will send you one. If you find it difficult to telephone you can ask your scheme manager to call on your behalf. You can then return the form in the freepost envelope provided. If you would like help completing the form, contact the financial assessment team direct. What if I don’t agree with the charge or can’t afford it? You can ask for your charge to be reviewed. If we do this and you still disagree, you can appeal against it. We will send you an appeal form asking you what the difficulty is. A manager will look at this and decide whether you should have your charge reduced. You will receive a letter giving you details of their decision. What happens in the meantime? Whilst an appeal is being considered you will be asked to pay the assessed charge until a final decision is made. 13 Still not sure? If you are in any doubt about your charge, or anything relating to it, we will be happy to talk to you about it. Please contact the financial assessment team on 01895 250597 or 01895 556865. If you have difficulty completing the form we may be able to visit you at home and help. What if I’m still not satisfied? If you still think that you have not been dealt with properly you can telephone direct on 01895 250366 and ask to speak to the customer care and complaints advisor (housing) who will be able to help you. Alternatively, you can ask the Supporting People team to raise your complaint with the customer care and complaints advisor (housing) on your behalf. Call us for more information. Statement on confidentiality Any personal information you give us will be accurately recorded and we will pass it on to other service providers if you want us to, so that you do not have to keep repeating the same information. This will help us to look at your needs in more detail and provide services more quickly. We are committed to ensuring that only those who absolutely need to know have access to personal information about you and then usually when you understand and support why they need to know. 14 Statement on personal information You have the right to see the information we hold about you in a form that suits you, for example in your language, on tape or through an interpreter. A leaflet explaining more about this, The right of access to personal information, is available on request. Equal opportunities We have an equal opportunities policy to provide services regardless of gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, ability or disability. Contacting the Supporting People team Telephone: 01895 556925 or 277523 Email: supportingpeopleteam@ hillingdon.gov.uk Fax: 01895 277313 www.spkweb.org.uk www.spdirectory.org.uk www.hillingdon.gov.uk If you are deaf or hard of hearing, you can contact us on the minicom number: 01895 277730. You can request copies of this document in Braille, large print, and on audio cassette from the Supporting People team. Further copies of this booklet are also available from the Supporting People team. 15 Information for support providers/ landlords Please ensure that this booklet is displayed and that copies are available for everyone liable to pay a support charge. The booklet should normally be given out when explaining the support charge, before the commencement of a service. But it should also be freely available for people who do not qualify initially for assistance, but subsequently may do, if their financial circumstances change. 16 Contacting the Supporting People team • The Supporting People team London Borough of Hillingdon 2W/03, Civic Centre, Uxbridge Middlesex UB8 1UW Opening times: 9.00am – 5.00pm Telephone numbers: 01895 277323 or 250113 or 556196 You can request copies of this document in Braille, large print, and on audio cassette from the Supporting People team www.hillingdon.gov.uk Published by the London Borough of Hillingdon May 2007 Ref:8960