Paying for adult social care

Charges for Care and Support

Your needs assessment (also known as a community care assessment) will identify what care and support services you need, we’ll work out a personal budget for the support you need. Unlike health care, social care services are not free and you will need to pay for them.

If you have less than £23,250 in capital, you may be eligible for some help with care costs.

The amount you pay for care will vary depending on your individual situation and your financial circumstances.

You may have to pay for all of the costs, or you may be able to apply for financial assistance. If you apply there is a financial assessment process to determine how much you will have to pay.

The amount you pay will depend on your capital, assets, income, savings and benefits.

You can use our eligibility checker to see if you could receive financial assistance.

Eligibility checker

You can find out more in:

• Our current charging policy
• Our guide to preparing for your financial assessment

Where Adult Social Care arranges services the total cost of the care services is usually within a set price range, these costs are detailed in the Schedule of Charges.

Fees and charges

The Government has a new long-term vision for reforming adult social care in England to make sure that it is fit for the future and fairer for everyone. You can find out more on our Adult Social Care Reform webpage.

What happens in a financial assessment?

A financial assessment looks at the money you have coming in and going out to see whether you are eligible for financial assistance with the costs of care and how much you will need to pay towards your care.

We’ll ask you to tell us about your income, savings and assets. We will also ask you about the money you spend on rent, mortgage and council tax, and any money you spend because of your disability or illness.

If you think you would be able to pay for your care yourself, or you don’t want to have a full financial assessment, you can ask for a light touch assessment instead. You will need to pay the full cost of your care if you do this. You can still ask for a full financial assessment later on.

We’ll send you a copy of the financial assessment and tell you how to pay your contribution.

How to pay your financial contribution

If you receive care at home from an agency, or if you attend a day centre, your service provider will invoice you for your contribution. They will tell you how to pay them. If you receive more than one service, you may receive invoices from one or more of your providers.

The amount you have to pay won’t be more than your assessed weekly charge.

If you have a direct cash payment, the payment you receive from us will be reduced by the amount of your assessed contribution. This means that you need to pay your assessed contribution into your direct payment account.
If you move to a care home, you will need to pay any assessed contribution for your placement to the Council.

The safest and most convenient way to do this is via Direct Debit. 

See our Paying for Residential Care information leaflet for more details. Or you can contact the Charging Income Team on 01209 614266 or e-mail adultcarebilling@cornwall.gov.uk 

You will need to pay the home for sundry items such as newspapers, chiropody and hairdressing.

Deferred payment agreements

If you need to move into permanent residential care and you own your own home, you may be assessed to pay the full cost of your care unless your home occupied by;

• your spouse
• partner
• civil partner
• or a qualifying *relative

Where your property is not occupied by one of those people you will usually be assessed to meet the full cost of your care either immediately or after the first 12 weeks, however, you may be eligible for a deferred payment agreement.

This means that you should not have to sell your home in your lifetime to pay for your care.

A deferred payment agreement is an arrangement with the Council that lets you use the value of your home to pay for your residential care. If you are eligible, you can receive a deferred payment in two ways.

• The Council can pay your care home bills on your behalf to the home,

or

• You can receive a direct loan payment to enable you to pay the home direct

You can delay repaying us until you choose to sell your home or until after your death – or at an earlier time if you wish.

We’ll charge a small amount of interest on the amount owed to us. There will be a fee for setting up this arrangement and some ongoing administrative charges.

See our deferred payments policy and the below schedule of fees and charges for details.

Deferred Payment Agreement Schedule of Fees and Charges 1 April 2022

Paying for transport to day services

If you need help to get to a service, we’ll discuss this with you.

We use our transport policy and eligibility criteria to look at the different ways you might access services. Please also be aware of the cancellation of transport and payment of contributions procedure.