How to Get Financial Help for Home Care from Kent Social Services

What this Article Is About

The purpose of this article is to guide you through the procedure for gaining support from Kent Social Services for your home care needs. This applies to adults only. 

To qualify to have your home care paid for fully or in part by Kent Social Services you have to have two assessments. The first one assesses your care needs and is called a community care assessment.

The second assessment is a financial assessment that decides if you are entitled to have your home care paid for fully or in part by Social services.

Community Care Assessment

To receive funding from Social Services, the first step is to have your care needs assessed. This is called a community care assessment.  

The assessment can be done face to face or by telephone. You explain what your care needs are and Social Services use this information to decide if you are eligible for Social Services support. To arrange an assessment you need to contact Kent Social services on the following number:

03000 41 61 61 (text relay 18001 03000 41 61 61) or email social.services@kent.gov.uk.

Your needs are assessed as falling into one of four bands.

1. Critical

2. Substantial

3. Moderate

4. Low

You only qualify for Social Services support if your needs fall into one of the first three bands. If your needs are assessed as low you do not qualify for Social Services Support.

If your care needs fall into one of the first three bands, Social Services will then work out how much this will cost. This is called your actual personal budget. This is not necessarily how much you will get from Social Services. How much you get depends upon your financial circumstances.

Financial Assessment

This is a type of means test. First of all, you will be asked how much you have in savings. This does not include your home. If you have more than £23 250 you will be asked to pay for your care in full. 

If you have less than £23 250 in savings, Social Services then assess the amount of income that you receive each week. Income includes your pension and benefits. If your income is over a certain amount, you will be asked to contribute to the cost of your care. 

Everyone’s circumstances are different. However, for everyone there is a protected income level of £185.44 (in 2014-15) per week. There are various allowances that increase the amount that Social Services cannot make you use to pay for your care. Certainly if your income is below £185.44 you will not pay at all. For more information, you can take a look at this booklet. 

If you have savings between £14 250 and £23 250, Social Services assume that part of this makes up your income. For every £500 that you have above £14 250, Social Services will add £1 to you income.  

For example, if you have £16 250 in savings (that’s £2000 above £14 250), Social Services will add £4 per week to your income. So, if your income is £200 per week, the extra added on because of your savings makes your income £204 per week. 

The amount of money that you have left after Social Services have deducted all your allowances is called your available income. It is the money that Social Services assess you as having available to contribute to your care each week. Available income is your actual income less your protected income plus other allowances. 

An Example

Let’s say that you the following figures apply to you: 

Income: £250 per week

Protected income plus other allowances: £225

Therefore, your available income is £25 per week (£250 - £225) 

This means that Social Services will say that you can contribute £25 per week to your care costs. 

Now let’s assume that your actual personal budget is £150 per week. Remember that your actual personal budget is how much your care is going to cost based on how it has been assessed by social services. 

To meet this figure of £150 per week, you will have to pay £25 per week and Social Services will pay £125 per week. 

Direct Payments

Once you are receiving financial help from Social Services, make sure that you asked to receive you money by direct payments. Social Services should inform you of your right to direct payments.  

Social services can arrange everything for you. However, if you want to take control over who provides your home care you need to request to receive direct payments. If you receive direct payments it means that you are given a sum of money that allows you to purchase your care from whichever company you choose. And the importance of this cannot be overstated.  For more information about direct payments; go to this page. 

Direct payments work in a very straightforward way. KCC pay an amount of money into your bank account or onto a Kent Card. The Kent Card is a Visa debit card and you can find out more details here. You then use this money to buy your care from a provider of your choice. 

Garry Costain is the Managing Director of Caremark Thanet, a domiciliary care provider with offices in Margate, Kent. Caremark Thanet provides home care services throughout the Isle of Thanet. Garry can be contacted on 01843 235910 or email garry.costain@caremark.co.uk. You can also visit Caremark Thanet's website at www.caremark.co.uk/thanet.