What is social care funding?
If you have social care needs, such as support with personal care, mobility or retaining your independence, you may be eligible for social care funding through your local authority. This is also known as a personal budget, as it allows you to be involved with decisions relating to your care.
This type of funding is means tested, which means you may have to contribute to – or completely pay for – the overall cost of your social care.
To find out if you’re eligible, it’s best to contact your local authority to ask for a financial assessment. Once completed, they will confirm how much money they are responsible for providing to fund your care.
To find out more about Health and Social Care Integration, please click here.
Personal budgets and direct payments
If you are eligible to receive a personal budget, your local council will either:
- Manage the budget for you
- Pay the money directly to another organisation i.e. Helping Hands
- Pay the money directly to you or someone you choose – also known as a direct payment
You are also able to choose a combination of the different options above. For example, if you decided to set up a package of care with Helping Hands, you could arrange for your local council to pay some of the money directly to us and send the remainder to you.
Direct payments enable you to decide your care provider of choice, liaise with them to set-up your care package and pay them directly. It means you can easily top-up payments if needed.
We accept both direct payments and payments made from your local council on your behalf.
Once I received agreement from my local authority, Helping Hands made the rest very easy. Both the care assessor and the person providing care were friendly, professional and flexible. A big thank you.
Ian, a visiting care customer
What’s next if you have a personal budget?
If you are eligible for social care funding, we can advise on how this can be used to implement a complete package of support so you can continue living at home. Providing visiting care and live-in care, we’ll arrange a care package that’s unique to you, focussed around your needs and requirements – but always remaining mindful of your budget and future needs.
If you already have funding for social care in place and would like to organise a package of care, or if you would like to find out more about our role in the funding process, please don’t hesitate to contact a member of the customer advice team today.
Our dedicated team work directly with prospective customers and with healthcare professionals on a daily basis to help people right across the country embrace independent living.
To speak to a member of the team about social care funding, please call 0330 029 9288.
