Paying for adult social care

If you have less than £23,250 in savings, you may get some or all of your adult social care costs covered. A financial assessment will determine any financial support you are eligible for.

Paying for care at home

This information relates to a financial assessment to determine how much you will need to pay towards care provided in your home or in the community. This is known as non-residential services.

Once your care and support assessment is complete, you or someone acting on your behalf must complete a financial assessment so we can work out how much, if anything, you will have to pay.

Information we need from you

You will need to provide us with accurate information with supporting evidence about;

  • your contact details and who, if not yourself, will be acting on your behalf
  • your income
  • your savings, capital and investments
  • your expenditure (such as rent, mortgage and Council Tax)
  • disability related expenditure (expenses you incur as a result of your disability or infirmity)
  • information to help us check you are in receipt of all the welfare benefits you are entitled to, if you wish

How we calculate the charge

The calculation used to determine how much you need to pay is;

Income – expenditure – allowances = client contribution per week

Your financial assessment officer will look at your income and capital and deduct the level of allowance that the government says we have to ignore. This is known as the minimum income guarantee. Allowances are monies that the government says we cannot take into account as being available for the purpose of paying for care. They are considered to be monies you need to cover day to day living expenses.

Expenditure is then deducted and the outcome is the amount of money we will ask you to pay towards your care and support.

For more details about how income, savings, capital, expenditure and allowances are treated, see our charging policy (PDF, 455 KB).

Your capital

You will have to pay the full cost of your care if your capital is above £23,250. This is called the capital threshold.

If you own property

We do not take into account the value of your main and only home whilst you continue to live there when assessing how much you need to contribute for a non-residential service. If you own a property which you do not live in, the value will be taken into account in the financial assessment. 

Disability-related expenditure

If your income is made up of a disability related income from the Department for Work and Pensions, you may be entitled to claim for additional expenditure that results from your disability or infirmity. Every eligible case is treated individually as we recognise that everybody’s needs are different. 

If you feel that you are eligible to claim disability-related costs, tell us about these costs in the financial assessment form. It is important that you retain invoices and receipts of these expenditure items to verify your additional expenses.

It is not possible to give a full list of the items you can claim but the following list will give you an idea of the types of costs we will consider:

  • extra heating
  • community alarm system
  • extra laundry costs
  • special clothing
  • special dietary requirements
  • disability-related equipment
  • transport costs

Paying your bill

We will send you or your representative a bill each month showing the amount you must pay. Find our more about how you can pay your invoice and our corporate debt recovery policy.

NHS help paying your bill

Some people with long-term complex health needs qualify for free social care arranged and funded solely by the NHS. This is known as NHS continuing healthcare - NHS website It can be provided in a variety of settings outside hospital, such as in your own home or in a care home.

Reviews and appeals

You can request a review of your assessed charge if you're unhappy with your assessed contributions, because:

  • you think an error has been made
  • there's new or additional information you would like us to consider

You should contact the charging helpline on 020 8760 5676 or or email SocialServices.SSFAT@croydon.gov.uk for more information.

The process is as follows:

  1. Review: at the review stage a different financial assessment officer (not the officer that made your financial assessment) will review the issue(s) raised and consider any new financial information provided. The officer will also check to ensure the charging policy (PDF, 566 KB) has been applied correctly.
  2. Appeal: if you are still unhappy with the reviewed charge or personal contribution, an appeal can be requested. At this stage we will organise for an independent person to look at the case. The appeal process can take up to 28 days from the time the completed appeals form is received, to the time we let you know the outcome of the appeal. 

We will let you know the outcome at each stage of this process. 

You will continue to be charged the original assessed contribution during the review and appeal process. If after the review and appeal your assessed contribution has changed, the difference will be backdated if appropriate and any overpaid charges or contributions will be refunded. 

If an independent adjudicator makes a recommendation to waiver the assessed charge, this will need to be ratified by the executive director responsible for adult social care. 

If you are not happy with the review and appeal outcome

If after completing the review and appeals process you are still unhappy with your assessed charge, you can use the statutory complaints procedure of the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO).

To find out how to complain, contact the LGO.

Contact us

If you have a question about your financial assessment and paying for your care, speak with your financial assessment officer direct or call 020 8760 5676.