Financial support from us

After your financial assessment

If you are assessed as having savings and capital of £23,250 or more, you'll need to fund all of your care and support from your own savings and income.

If you have savings and capital under £23,250, you could receive:

• full funding from the council
• funding in part from council, with you contributing the rest of the required amount

If you have over £14,250 in savings (but less than £23,250)

• we will add £1 per week to your assessable income for every £250 of savings and capital that you have over £14,250.  For example, if you have £15,000 in savings, £3 per week would be added to your assessable income. This is because you have £750 in savings over the limit of £14,250.

How much you must contribute

The amount you must pay towards your care will depend on:

Assessable income 
When assessing your contribution we take into account most welfare benefits including:

• Pension Credit
• Retirement Pension
• Pension Credit
• Employment Support Allowance

We also take into account other types of income when assessing a contribution, for example occupational pensions.

For non-residential care

We take into account assessable income and:

• Attendance allowance
• Disability Living Allowance (care)
• Personal Independence Payments (daily living)

For further information about the income that is taken into account when assessing a contribution, please contact the Financial Assessment Team on:

Telephone: 020 8359 2238
Email: financial.assessments@barnet.gov.uk

When working out your contribution we make allowances for personal expenses allowances (residential care) and a guaranteed minimum income amount (non-residential care).

Residential care personal expenses allowance

After assessing a contribution towards the costs of residential care, the personal expenses allowance is £24.90 per week.

Guaranteed Minimum Income

We need to make sure that after assessing your contribution that you have enough money to live on to meet day to day living costs, this is called your Guaranteed Minimum Income.

The Guaranteed Minimum Income levels ensure that you have a protected level of income to meet the everyday living costs such as food, clothing and utility bills. 

The amount that is allowed as your Guaranteed Minimum Income amount varies depending on your age and the benefits you receive. 

Expenses and outgoings

In addition to the Guaranteed Minimum Income amounts we also make allowances for outgoings and expenses including:

• Housing costs including rent (after housing benefit), mortgage payments, council tax (after council tax support), building insurance;
• Disability related expenses, these are the additional costs you have to pay for because of your disability or ill health.

How we work out your contribution

Your contribution is worked out after taking into account assessable income and savings/capital. We then adjust depending on the personal expenses allowance (residential care) or the guaranteed minimum income amount (non-residential care).

The amount that is left over after making these deductions is the amount that you will be asked to pay as your assessed contribution towards the costs of care. 

If you disagree

We'll always explain how we have worked out your contribution. If you disagree with how we have worked this out, you have up to 20 days to contact us so that we can look into this.

Financial Assessment Team
Telephone: 020 8359 2238
Email: financial.assessments@barnet.gov.uk

More information

For non-residential care:  More information can be found in the Barnet Fairer Contributions Policy 2022-2023 (PDF 500 KB)

For residential care: See the care home pages

How we collect your contributions

You will receive an invoice for the amount you have been assessed to pay. The invoice provides information about the ways you can pay.

If you choose to receive your Personal Budget as a direct payment into your bank account to arrange your own care, we will deduct your assessed contribution directly from the payment that we send to you.

If you're paying for some or all of your social care services, including paying for long term care, it may be useful to get some independent financial advice.

Contacts

Financial Assessment Team
Telephone: 020 8359 2238
Email: financial.assessments@barnet.gov.uk