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Paying for care at home

Your care plan sets out how many hours of care you receive each week - in the home or in one of our day centres. The council has set maximum charges for each service.

You will be asked to fill in a finance assessment form and we will use this to work how much we think you should pay.

The maximum charges

If you have savings over £35,000 you will have to pay the maximum charges. The current maximum charges are:

Home care

  • £15.00 per 1 hour for the first 8 hours of service
  • £13.00 per 1 hour for any further hours of service

Day care

Attendance charge per week

  • £15 each day for the first two days then £10 for the third day.
  • £40 for three days or more attendance

These charges do not include the cost for meals and drinks.  Meals are £3.00 each and drinks are £1.55 each plus VAT.

Nobody will be asked to pay more than £302 per week for care services.

The financial assessment form

In the financial assessment form you will be asked to list all of your savings, income and expenses so that we can work out fair charges.

Savings

You will need to list all your savings, such as building society accounts, stocks and shares. If your total savings come to less than £12,750 we will not include these in working out your contributions. We will not include savings belonging to your husband or wife.

We will not include the value of the home you live in when calculating your savings.

Income

We will ask you to list your income. We will use your income to assess your contributions. When looking at your income we will not include disability benefits such as Disability Living Allowance and Attendance Allowance. We will not include your husband or wife’s income.

We want to make sure that you receive all of the benefits you are entitled to. All our customers are offered free benefits advice.

Expenses

We will make allowance for your bills and living expenses when calculating your contributions. The following expenses are taken into account:

  • Council tax
  • Rent/ground rent
  • Mortgage
  • Service/maintenance charges
  • Water charges
  • Careline charges

If you do not return a financial assessment form or you do not answer all the questions on it, you may be charged more than you can afford.

Contact the Charging Helpline

If you cannot afford your contributions or if you are worried you cannot afford your payments, please contact the Charging Helpline.

Email: charging.helpline@richmond.gov.uk
Telephone: 020 8831 6215