Paying for care
If we contribute to your care costs
If you have less than £23,250 in savings and capital, you'll get financial help from us towards your care and support costs.
As we're contributing to your care costs, we'll give you a 'final personal budget'. The is the actual amount of money needed to cover the services that we've agreed will meet your eligible needs. The final personal budget will override the indicative budget we gave you originally on your care and support plan. The final budget may be higher or lower than the indicative budget we gave you, as this was just an estimate. We will update your care and support plan with the final personal budget. It will tell you how much you're contributing to it and how much we are, based on the financial assessment.
You can get your personal budget paid directly to you so you have more control over the care you receive. This is called a direct payment. We only give you the part we are contributing. For example, if your care costs are £500 and we've assessed you as being able to pay £100, your direct payment would be £400.
We have a Direct Payment Support Service who provide information and support about:
- Understanding personal budgets and arranging your own support
- Managing direct payments
- Recruiting, employing and managing personal assistants
We can also arrange services on your behalf so you don't have to have a direct payment.
My choice of care home is more than my final personal budget
If you are going into a care home and your chosen place costs more than your final personal budget allows, you might be able to use a care home top-up fee. This is also known as a third party care home top-up. It's where someone (like a relative) pays the shortfall. You can't pay your own top up fees - because we've assessed you as needing financial help from us.
For more information on care home top-up fees, go to: