The Care Act 2014

cattermole

You can read the Statutory Guidance here, the Act is due to start being rolled out next year.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/366104/43380_23902777_Care_Act_Book.pdf

It's a very long document, so it's going to take a lot of reading!

However as I have a special interest in Charging for Services it does seem to be a good thing that it is going to be regulated as far as I can see so far.

For Nannytone/Indie Kid and everyone, the example it gives in Annex C under Financial Charging is very interesting because it quotes a blind person's use/need for the internet being a Disability Related Expenditure page 435.

onlygoingforward

Looking at the list of DREs in the document, in my area we already allow these items as individual DRES and always have done.

I know some other councils do job lots or standard % DRES and have done since 2003 when fairer charging came in and that is supposed to include all DRES in a combination not individually.

Personally in my area i cant see us having to alter our way of charging for homecare as much as some councils who adopted a more blanket approach to DRES.

Interesting about the internet as a DRE as it can be argued as a DRE for just about anyone not just sight impaired. In my area we have several clients that i know of who have the internet part of their person centered care plan. Or they could say its part of the basic living cost these days and included in the buffer instead...

System

Being pedantic, isn't calling guidance statutory a bit of a contradiction?

If it is statutory then it is mandated by law and therefore no longer guidance

tomtontom

!!!!!! wrote: »

Being pedantic, isn't calling guidance statutory a bit of a contradiction?

If it is statutory then it is mandated by law and therefore no longer guidance

The guidance is a means of statutory interpretation. It is an indicator of good practice, but a court may choose to apply a different interpretation (in practice they rarely do).

cattermole

Good point.

However today I've been researching Guidance because an issue has come up with our Authority re charging. Basically I've discovered that our Authority is now not allowing an DRE at all! They are automatically doing Benefits based charging and are even calling it that for ALL, apparently Fairer Charging isn't done in our Authority now!. They claim that when people do the Self Assessment for Care the RAS system automatically allocates their DRE and is included in the Care plan!

Well slight problem with that how does someone receiving services who isn't a DP user get their DRE back? It's a nonsense because most DRE is not going to be included in a Care plan. So from what I can see there are many users in our Authority who are being taken below the minimum income level + 25% if they have high DRE. This particularly applies to say an elderly person living alone because they are unlikely to be or want to be a DP user and would have high DRE costs that are not covered in a care plan or personal budget. Like cleaning, shopping, garden maintenance etc.

In addition a friend who is going through the Self Directed Assessment for her severely disabled son, DRE hasn't even come up! Surprise, surprise!

I think the reason they are changing the term to Statutory Guidance is tied up in this, they are repealing other acts that underpin current duties LA's have under them.

For example current guidance if issued under S.7 Local Authority Social Services Act 1970 which Fairer Charging is means they do have to pay regard to it. The Secretary of State also has the power to investigate if they are failing in their duties under said Act and order them to do so. How often that happens I don't know but probably rarely. I've fired off an email to my MP asking him to request an investigation by the Secretary of State for them blatantly ignoring the Guidance on DRE. So will see what happens

I think them calling it Statutory Guidance is a good thing, it is guidance because it has some flexibility in it, but certain points are not negotiable. But yes can see it is a bit misleading.

However the Care Act is also going to be underpinned with regulations as well.

onlygoingforward

Fairer charging isn't fair..... And it is currently only guidance so there are massive differences with the dre interpretation by each council I think the only thing we all do is give the income support plus 25% buffer. Another council next to mine pulled all dres unless the old people called up to ask for them on review...

Dres are also pretty subjective we all may give differing dres in the same cases as a lot of it is the WROs interpretation on the situation, and care plans, rarely give us a clue person centred or not.

I have a problem with large dres being awarded for such as cleaning as if it's not an identified care need why should we disregard up to £100 a week??? I'd love a cleaner but couldn't afford one, something's are just a lifestyle choice and shouldn't be paid for by the care system.

cattermole

All legislation is open to interpretation whether Guidance or otherwise by LA's its one of the main reasons we get so many anomalies between Authorities.

Regulations are slightly different because they are much more prescriptive, like say Housing Benefit. LA's cannot deviate from the regulations even if they want to.

So I think I can challenge my LA on two points the S.7 order for Guidance under current Fairer Charging Guidance says they have to have regard to it. They also have to have a clear policy on how they deal with DRE which they don't.

Furthermore come next April as I've now found the draft regulations assuming they go through the House. It will be set in stone that they have to disregard DRE page 15 when calculating income if they include Disability Benefits in the income.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/376204/2903119_Care_Act_Negative_Regulations_Master.pdf

In our authority it makes no difference what your income is under their current "benefit charging" so as long as you are below the capital savings amount you pay the same as someone only on benefits! This has only come into force in the last year or so. So they are going to have to change their ways once it's in regulations. I still think even at the moment it isn't lawful because they are blatantly ignoring guidance, not just a question of interpretation.

I do agree DRE has to be sensible £100 a week cleaning is not. LA's will have the flexibility to set clear policies on this. For example I think say 2 hours cleaning is reasonable. Years ago we had Home Helps provided by the LA particularly for the Elderly that did these sort of things.

Care plans only really provide Personal care, particularly for the Elderly and it will only be the minimum amount as well. The way I look at it is if by giving someone 1/2 an hours care a day for washing and dressing and they are able to use their AA for keeping their independence in other ways this has to be a good thing and in the long run more cost effective. I know with my Mum-in-law it has transformed her life since she got AA and get's 1/2 hour care a day. She can pay for a cleaner 2 hours a week provided by Age Concern at £11 an hour. Get her garden done and afford a taxi occasionally as she can't walk more than a few feet. Her charges after DRE are £9 a week. But she is happier, healthier and less lonely. She doesn't feel she has to rely on others as much and feels more in control.

Without the AA or if it was all taken in charges, what life would she have? So I do agree it's a lifestyle choice but that people should have that choice from their disability benefits, not have that taken away in charges for the essential care they cannot do without. Disability benefits are for disability related expenditure that is their purpose.

I hasten to add her LA did have a clear formula for working out DRE and it seemed fair. Also WRO's should not be doing financial assessments for charging. Financial assessments should be independent and objective with clear criteria and rules.

The recent trend of taking the SDP and 1/2 DLA day time by LA's does stem back to ILF, however no one on ILF would not have a reasonable large package of care because of the way it was structured. So would have had PA's a lot of the time who were able to do all these other things like cleaning etc. Also anyone on a 24 hour care package with ILF £37 a week was offset against the SDP and 1/2 DLA. Plus it wasn't actually taken in charges just not given in the care money, so there was more flexibility for the user.

onlygoingforward

cattermole wrote: »

Also WRO's should not be doing financial assessments for charging. Financial assessments should be independent and objective with clear criteria and rules.

Its what we do its our core business, charging for homecare and residential care and maximizing benefits. We are having a name change in the near future but cant come up with one everyone is happy with. The name is from before fairer charging came into being but the roles have obviously changed dramatically, and its never been looked at to be renamed until recently.

The only other way is for councils to outsource assessments to be independent but as far as i know most councils in my area employ their own workers to do this same as us, my friend does the same job in the next council and is called a financial and benefit assessor - its just a name these days.

We do have clear criteria and rules and anything over and above or out of the box goes to an review panel to be looked at and awarded if necessary, but there is still an element of judgement at the visits and always will be whoever does it. Ie should that client have extra washing or not "whats normal" "whats additional" - the smell usually gives it away

We are also a high charging council for homecare and have quite a low charge for residential homes, and if we dont put money in the care pot we dont have any to spend and government is giving less and less to it. If you are under the capital limit here its means testing and tariff income is included up to £36 a week if you have savings.

Its a tough business charging for care and its not always easy telling people they have to pay but our average charge is over £50 a week for an average pensioner on pension credit, sdp and AA, (£78 before DRES). And if you are young and disabled and live alone with no-one claiming carers i have done charges around £100 per week after DRES. :eek:

Dres are not large amounts here we are talking £3 a week for washing, £4 a week for personal hygiene products, £2 transport costs, £2 additional bedding costs and most dont come near the water meter and energy limits for additional allowances - which are given by the local water and electric companies as average costs.

nannytone_2

our councils charging policy is very simple and straightforward.
they assess income and savings.
for people with savings below 16k, they assess solely on income.
for people with weekly income og £150 or below, no contributions are asked for.
between £150 and £190 its on a sliding scale.
over £190 they take 60% of middle rate DLA/ low rate AA.
they dont take from any other benefit.
so if no savings are involvrf, the highest that anyone is asked to contribute is £142 every 4 weeks.
this went up last month from a maximum of £106 every 4 weeks

cattermole

onlygoingforward wrote: »

Its what we do its our core business, charging for homecare and residential care and maximizing benefits. We are having a name change in the near future but cant come up with one everyone is happy with. The name is from before fairer charging came into being but the roles have obviously changed dramatically, and its never been looked at to be renamed until recently.

The only other way is for councils to outsource assessments to be independent but as far as i know most councils in my area employ their own workers to do this same as us, my friend does the same job in the next council and is called a financial and benefit assessor - its just a name these days.

We do have clear criteria and rules and anything over and above or out of the box goes to an review panel to be looked at and awarded if necessary, but there is still an element of judgement at the visits and always will be whoever does it. Ie should that client have extra washing or not "whats normal" "whats additional" - the smell usually gives it away

We are also a high charging council for homecare and have quite a low charge for residential homes, and if we dont put money in the care pot we dont have any to spend and government is giving less and less to it. If you are under the capital limit here its means testing and tariff income is included up to £36 a week if you have savings.

Its a tough business charging for care and its not always easy telling people they have to pay but our average charge is over £50 a week for an average pensioner on pension credit, sdp and AA, (£78 before DRES). And if you are young and disabled and live alone with no-one claiming carers i have done charges around £100 per week after DRES. :eek:

Dres are not large amounts here we are talking £3 a week for washing, £4 a week for personal hygiene products, £2 transport costs, £2 additional bedding costs and most dont come near the water meter and energy limits for additional allowances - which are given by the local water and electric companies as average costs.

I thought most Councils had a separate team for the Financial Assessment as opposed to Welfare Rights. Anyway most Councils are surely using the methodology laid down by the NAFAO? I know some outsource to a separate company.

I'm sure you will agree that not individually assessing any DRE at all is not going to be acceptable or legal?!. There have been very few legal challenges to DRE not being allowed, I tend to think this is because people don't know their rights. Plus it's an emerging trend of LA's taking Disability Benefits into charging

Any Council that takes anyone below that level would be acting unlawfully, which is why if they only allow set amounts if a user can show otherwise in the form of receipts etc. for legitimate DRE they do have to allow it.

I appreciate it's shortage of funding from Central Government however Councils still have to act lawfully.

cattermole

nannytone wrote: »

our councils charging policy is very simple and straightforward.
they assess income and savings.
for people with savings below 16k, they assess solely on income.
for people with weekly income og £150 or below, no contributions are asked for.
between £150 and £190 its on a sliding scale.
over £190 they take 60% of middle rate DLA/ low rate AA.
they dont take from any other benefit.
so if no savings are involvrf, the highest that anyone is asked to contribute is £142 every 4 weeks.
this went up last month from a maximum of £106 every 4 weeks

You are very lucky as you know Nannytone, however with your Council's charging system they can't possibly take anyone below the minimum + 25%. I tend to think there is an argument that they probably incur very few costs in administering a simple scheme like that and it makes it very easy to collect the charges.

Our Council are trying to do that make it simple except they have done it in a completely unlawful way and only charging on Disability Benefits ONLY regardless of income or savings unless you are over the max threshold for savings which means you would have to pay anyway in all authorities. Plus not individually assessing DRE at all!! Claiming it's all in the Care plan!

So regardless of any additional income which could be a private pension of £25,000 a year or more plus any non mean's tested benefits. You would only pay 1/2 DLA or AA!