Issue - meetings

Proposed changes to charges for non-residential services

Meeting: 03/03/2020 - Cabinet (Resources) Panel (Item 8)

8 Proposed changes to charges for non-residential services pdf icon PDF 201 KB

[To amend the 'individual assessment' contributions scheme implemented in April 2018 with particular regard to the transitional protection element due to end on 31 March 2020]

 

Additional documents:

Decision:

1.     That a further period of transitional protection of up to three years as set out in Option three, which seeks to achieve the right balance by limiting the increases to peoples’ contributions to adult social care services (where they were in receipt of services prior to April 2018) whilst ensuring that we work towards the individual financial assessment amount be approved.

 

2.     That authority be delegated to the Cabinet Member for Adult Services in consultation with the Director of Adult Services at the end of the further transitional protection period in March 2023.

 

Minutes:

Councillor Linda Leach presented the report on proposals for a revised extended transitional protection scheme for charges for non-residential adult social care services, to limit the increases to peoples’ contributions where they were in receipt of services prior to April 2018, whilst ensuring that the Council work towards the individual financial assessment amount. 

 

Resolved:

1.    That a further period of transitional protection of up to three years as set out in Option three, which seeks to achieve the right balance by limiting the increases to peoples’ contributions to adult social care services (where they were in receipt of services prior to April 2018) whilst ensuring that we work towards the individual financial assessment amount be approved.

 

2.    That authority be delegated to the Cabinet Member for Adult Services in consultation with the Director of Adult Services at the end of the further transitional protection period in March 2023.

 


Meeting: 28/01/2020 - Adults Scrutiny Panel (Item 5)

5 Proposed changes to charges for non-residential services ( report to follow) pdf icon PDF 206 KB

The Panel is asked to note the following:

 

 

This item is being considered as pre-decision scrutiny and will therefore not be available to call-in once a decision is made by the Executive.

 

 

[Helen Winfield, Head of Community Financial Support, to present report]

Minutes:

 

Helen Winfield, Head of Community Financial Support, presented the report and the outlined the background to proposal to extend the current transitional protection, due to end in April 2020, for a further two years. The Head of Community Financial Support detailed the reasons behind suggesting the proposed change and explained why option 3 was considered to be best approach to continuing to support people in receipt of transitional protection and would be the recommendation to Cabinet. The report was presented to SEB for comments and they were also supportive of Option 3 as it would offer the right balance in trying to limit the level of increase and also move people closer towards paying the correctly assessed amount.

 

The Head of Community Financial Support shared an example of completed financial assessment form to show the impact on people in receipt of non-residential adult social care, when different scenarios in each of the options is applied.

 

The panel expressed concern that the assessment would not properly consider other costs arising from their illness or disability and therefore limit the opportunity for them to engage in community and social activities. The Head of Community Financial Support advised that Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG), which is protected income in the assessment, is set by Government and is intended to meet the normal living costs of a person and also contribute towards covering the cost of their own care and support.

 

The Council has discretion to disregard more than standard MIG amount and has set an amount of £12 for disability related expenditure for people of pension credit qualifying age as shown on the financial assessment form.

 

For people below pension credit qualifying age who have a lower standard MIG, there is an additional amount of £5.04, which can be disregarded.

 

The Council can take account of other costs which can be disregarded during the financial assessment. A person can also ask for an enhanced financial assessment to consider the actual costs of disability-related expenses if these are higher than the set amounts applied in the basic financial assessment.

 

The panel welcomed the focus in wanting to protect individuals against unreasonable significant increases after April 2020, if the current support scheme ended.

 

The panel invited the Head of Community Financial Support to comment on future levels of transitional protection and possible changes to level of Minimum Income Guarantee which will impact on the amount of financial contributions. The Head of Community Financial Support commented that it is expected that the amount may increase in the future as it has not changed for 10 years.

 

The panel welcomed the report and agreed to support Option 3 as detailed.

 

Resolved:

1.    The panel agreed to support the proposal for continuing transitional protection as detailed in Option 3.

 

2.    The panel supports the recommendation to approve the Cabinet Member for Adult Services to have delegated authority to make further changes to the transitional protection scheme.