So much depends on circumstances. Someone living in a small fully staffed supported living home will not have the same costs as my son living alone with carers coming in. He has to buy all his white goods, pay for accommodation for who is supporting them, all the costs that person incurs on the holiday.
Bowlingbun, could I ask what FB group that is? Iâm always looking to join pages offering suggestions like this.
And also what ballpark weâre talking for a weekly funding figure thatâs getting written off?
Iâm sure council will be reluctant to waive charges on large care packages, so itâll be interesting to see if anyoneâs having success there.
Adult Social Care Warriors. Of course none of us should need to be warriors to get what we are legally entitled to. My son in theory has a large package but he never gets all the hours he is entitled to. Steam engines are his only hobby, but no one suitably qualified supports him unless he comes home. Iâve been driving our steam roller since I was 19, at 23 we were shipping steam engines to the UK from Australia. I have national awards from the National Traction Engine Trust. Once we bought our own low loader we went to shows every summer weekend, I became the nationâs expert on these lorries (!) but Social Services neither find anyone suitable and if I donât support him he doesnât get a whiff of steam. Often his âactivityâ is walking to town and having a cup of tea!!!
Thanks, Bowlingbun!
Two of my careeâs havenât had any funding for social inclusion/outside activities since 2017. Theyâre stuck indoors because social services assumes family will take them out and about for free but their needs are too high for family to handle it alone now.
We keep asking for a few extra hours to employ someone to come in and get them out to local groups/events, but the answer is âthereâs no more funding available, youâve reached the upper limits.â Pretty sure thatâs unlawful, but to tell them that is like banging your head against a wall.
Yes, it IS unlawful to set an upper limit.
Make an FOI, Freedom of Information Act, asking for details of the banding limits, so you have it in writing. They must respond within a month.
How many hours does your carer have?
If theyâve told you that youâve reached the âupper limitsâ, ask for a written explanation of how they reached that decision, and when the policy was voted on by the elected members.
They canât. There is no legal upper limit for care. And any policy would effectively admit to refusing to meet needs. So I can pretty much guarantee that theyâll refuse such a letter and have never put anything in writing about âupper limitsâ - because a good solicitor would have a field day with that. Budgetary concerns do trump needs in certain circumstances - lots of legal precedent for that - but a POLICY to set a limit must go through the local councilâs elected members as they are liable for the actions of their officers. And the policy must explain how this impacts on their Equality Duty.
Of course the council relies on telling people things that cannot be true assuming that carers are unaware of their rights.
As it says at the bottom of all my posts, information is power!!
I once reclaimed ÂŁ8,000 from Hampshire as they hadnât applied the charging rules properly.
Challenging a council can be successful.
I challenged their Education Department, appealed to the Secretary of State for Education, who told the council to pay for the schooling my son needed!
Courage costs nothing. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
To be honest the banding info has left me scratching my head a bit in the past, but a friend of mine submitted a FOI for the weekly costs of domestic care/support through DPâs to see where their careeâs package stoodâŚ
Based on those figures (which include on-costs) my careeâs package is a drop in a bucket. They come in about ÂŁ100 above the average weekly cost to the council, and the highest weekly care package is in the thousands. So the social worker has clearly been economical with the truth in how much more funding could be accessed/agreed.
The caree who was told this has a copy of their annual care plan completed by not one, but three (in consecutive years) different social workers, stating in the plan that X or Y couldnât be covered because my caree has âreached the maximum provisionâ.
This is something theyâve always maintained during reviews too. Whenever weâve asked for more support for social inclusion etc, âthe care package is large already/thereâs no more fundingâ. Never thought to ask for them to explain why exactly, but the next time thatâs said to us I will take your advice and ask them to explain themselves.
I totally agree.
Trouble is, caree doesnât want to challenge things because previous social work. ers have put the fear of God into them that theyâre âvery luckyâ to have what they have, and that disputing any charges or limits, or getting a financial reassessment, will result in them having to pay more/getting less.
So they donât want to rock the boat, and since they have capacity, I canât really step in and do it for them.
Please see post here https://www.carersuk.org/forum/news-and-campaigns/campaigns-petitions/scrap-social-care-charges-website-45391 re scrapping social care charges campaign.
Melly1
My PIP money is spent on buying adaptive equipment for my home in order to allow me to
live independently. I live in Surrey near London. Some of the money also is used to pay a handy personal assistant to come and teach me how to cook my own healthy meals and get some fun exercise as well. We also do some travel training and looking at courses etc. She comes to the house only once a week nowadays.