Charges for Residential and Nursing care services

Adults and Older People

If your care assessment shows that your needs are best met in a care home, as a Temporary or Permanent Resident Factsheet you may be entitled to financial support from the Council to help with your care fees.

How much you will pay will depend on your financial assessment. 

 

Calculate your contribution

If you receive care funded by your local authority, at home, in the community, or in a residential home, you will be asked about your individual circumstances to work out if, and how much, you can contribute to the cost of your care.

The Online Contribution Calculator lets you do this for yourself – free, in confidence, and in your own time.

All you need to do is enter details of your benefits, pensions, earnings, savings, assets, and essential costs. The Calculator will tell you what your weekly contribution might be.

This easy-to-use, online Calculator will tell you how much you might be asked to contribute towards your care.

 

How much does it cost?

Trafford Council will pay the following amounts per week based upon the agreed Council Framework prices depending on your needs assessment:

Residential

£657.90

Nursing

£735.43

If you choose not to have a financial assessment or you do not provide your financial information we will ask you to pay the full cost of the services you have.

Payments for care services can be carried out online.

When carrying out a financial assessment for those receiving Residential and Nursing Care services, the Council will leave the service user with a minimum amount of income. This is called the Personal Expenditure Allowance (PEA). This amount is set nationally each year; the 2023/2024 amount is £28.25 per week.

See the Financial Assessments for Residential and Non-Residential care services for more information.

 

Will my savings affect the cost?

If you have savings and investments of £23,250 or more you will be responsible for the full cost of your placement.

 

What if I choose to move into a home that costs more?

If you wish to move to a home that costs more than the Council Framework prices the excess amount is known as ‘Top-Up.’

The Care Act 2014 states that you must not pay for this yourself if you have under £23,250 in capital or property. Therefore you will either need to negotiate a reduction in your fees with the home, or a third party (such as a relative, friend or charity) will need to pay the weekly ‘Top-Up’ amount.

We need to be certain that you have enough money or equity in your house to top up your care for as long as you need.

In general you cannot top up fees from your own savings. The exceptions to this are:

  • You can pay your own ‘Top-Up’ if you own a property and it is being disregarded for the first 12 weeks after you have entered into a care home.
  • In these cases the Top Up is chargeable from day 1, there are no top up disregards
  • If you are on the Deferred Payments Scheme and the Council has agreed to pay the cost of your accommodation including the 'Top-Up', which will be recovered when your property is sold.

 

Third party 'Top-up'

The third party will need to supply information about their income and expenditure to ensure they can afford to pay this Third Party ‘Top-Up’ to the Council.

You should also check what will happen if the fees increase. Will the person or organisation paying the 'Top-Up' cover the increased costs?

Agreement must be reached between the Council, and the person or organisation helping to pay your fees, before any contract is signed.

 

I have a house, how will this be treated within my Financial Assessment?

In most cases the Council will disregard your property for the first 12 weeks from the first date you have moved into the care home. However, if there is a Top-Up, this will be chargeable from day 1. The Council will then take your property into account as capital from week 13 and therefore charge you the full cost of your care.

If you enter a care home permanently, your interest in your existing ‘main or only’ home is usually taken into account as capital. However, the value should be disregarded from the financial assessment if you no longer occupy the home but it is still occupied, in part or whole, as their main or only home by:

  • your spouse, partner, former partner, or civil partner, except where you are estranged
  • a lone parent who is your estranged or divorced partner
  • a relative of yours, or member of your family, who is:
  • aged 60 or over, or
  • a child of yours aged under 18, or
  • ‘Incapacitated’. They must have been occupying the property before you went into the care home. The disregard lasts until the situation changes, at which time it may be included in the financial assessment.

The Council offers a Deferred Payment Scheme – please see the Deferred Payment Factsheet.

For information about when we will not take your property into account please see our Care and Support Charging and Financial Assessment Framework.

Debt recovery

Trafford Council needs to show to residents, elected members and tax payers of the Borough that it collects all income due from whatever source as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Effective financial management is fundamental to being able to fund the quality of services the Council provides.

The best method of debt collection is the prevention of debt. The Council has a Care and Residential Services Debt Management and Recovery Policy which covers both prevention and recovery.

 

Financial Advice

If you are looking for financial advice, struggling with debt problems, or concerned about getting behind with bills, there are a number of organisations in Trafford that can help with managing your money.

 

Further Support

If you need any further support you can contact the team directly on 0161 912 2106 or by email: financial.assessments@trafford.gov.uk

 

Privacy

This authority is under a duty to protect the public funds it administers, and to this end may use the information you have provided to us for the prevention and detection of fraud. It may also share this information with other bodies responsible for auditing or administering public funds for these purposes.

For further information on data matching to prevent and detect fraud and corruption see the Council's Level 2 National Fraud Initiative Privacy Notice. For further information you can also refer to Trafford Council’s own Privacy Notices.

 

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Last updated: 07/12/2023

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