Care and support services in England are not free. Most people have to pay something towards their care, and you may have to pay the whole cost of your care which is called 'self funding'.
Peterborough City Council may cover some or all of the cost, but the help we give is 'means-tested'. That means the amount you are asked to pay depends on how much money you have, and how much care and support you need.
In this section you can also find advice about welfare benefits.
Someone else managing your money
If you are having difficulty managing your own money, you can choose to have someone else do this for you, such as a friend or relative. There are a number of ways to achieve this, including:
providing authority to your bank or building society for someone to act on your behalf, known as a 'third party mandate'
drawing up a legal document known as an Ordinary Power of Attorney – to allow someone to manage your finances by acting on your behalf
drawing up a legal document known as a Lasting Power of Attorney – to allow someone to manage your finances by acting on your behalf, even if you lose mental capacity in the future
choosing someone to act as an appointee for you, who can receive and manage your social security benefits. In some circumstances, the council can do this for you.
Managing someone else's money
If you care for someone and they lose their mental capacity to manage their own finances, you can manage these on their behalf in one of three ways:
by using the authority given to you by a Lasting Power of Attorney
apply to the Court of Protection to become a Deputy to manage their financial and property affairs
apply to the Department for Work and Pensions to become an appointee to receive and manage their social security benefits.
Making a will
Your will lets you decide what happens to your money, property and possessions after your death.
If you make a will you can also make sure you don’t pay more Inheritance Tax than you need to.
You can write your will yourself, but you should get advice if your will isn’t straightforward.
You need to get your will formally witnessed and signed to make it legally valid.
If you want to update your will, you need to make an official alteration (called a ‘codicil’) or make a new will.
If you die without a will, the law says who gets what.
The Government website 'making a will' is a good source of infomation
As you get older, it’s important to think about planning for your later life, including any care and support that you may need. Independent financial advice can help you to:
make balanced and reasoned decisions
ensure you get the best from your money and investments that will help you to meet any long term care costs
provide some certainty and security.
It can be difficult making life changing decisions by yourself, so an independent financial adviser can provide specialist knowledge tailored to your own circumstances to help and support you.
You can find independent financial advice yourself by visiting the Money Advice Service website or you may search for independent financial advisers for the category list on this page.
You can find out what benefits you may be entitled to by visiting the Benefits Calculator.
You can contact the Disability Service Centre to get advice or information about a claim you’ve already made for Disability Living Allowance, Attendance Allowance or Personal Independence Payment.
Peterborough City Council specialist welfare benefits advisor
Peterborough City Council has a specialist welfare benefits advisor who can undertake casework to help local residents to challenge decisions on social security benefits (mandatory reconsiderations and appeals)
To see if you might be eligible for assistance from the welfare benefits advisor please answer the following questions:
If you have ticked “yes” to all the above questions, please feel free to contact the welfare benefits advisor by emailing pin@peterborough.gov.uk to see if help would be available to challenge the decision on your benefit claim.
What is Universal Credit?
Universal Credit supports you if you are on a low income or out of work. It includes a monthly payment to help with your living costs.
This website produced by The Department for Work and Pensions is really useful if you are:
Universal Credit for sick and disabled people
The Money Advice Service produce useful information on their website explaining about Universal Credit for sick and disabled people.
A Guide to Universal Credit and You
For more information on claiming Universal Credit, your commitments, sanctions and working while claiming download this useful guide.
Contact also have some useful information about Universal Credit.
Before you can consider funding, you will need a formal social care assessment to find out what level of care you need. You can find out more about this on the Help to live at home page.
You will have to pay the full cost of your care if you have more than £23,250 in savings. Unless you're going into a care home, this amount does not include the value of your property.
If your savings are less than £23,250 but more than £14,250 then Peterborough City Council will pay for your care, but you will have to contribute £1 to the fees for every £250 of savings you have.
If you have less than £14,250 in savings, your care can usually be funded by the council but you may have to pay a contribution towards this from your income - and the size of your contribution will largely depend on the level of your income. If your income is very high, then you may need to meet all the costs of your care yourself, but your charge will always be based on what you can afford.
Paying for your care at home
Social care and support, unlike health care provided by the NHS, is not usually free of charge. If you have been assessed by us as needing ongoing care and support, you will be offered a financial assessment to work out how much you may need to pay towards the care you receive, and to provide advice about welfare benefits. No-one is asked to pay more towards their care than they can afford. You can find out more on the Paying for your care at home page.
Paying for your care in a care home
A financial assessment calculates how much you need to pay towards the cost of your care in a care home by looking at your income, savings and capital and will also provide advice on welfare benefits which you may be entitled to. You can find out more on our Paying for your care in a care home page.
Personal budgets
A personal budget is an amount of money made available to meet your social care and support needs following a care and support assessment. Personal budgets can help to give you more choice and control over how you receive the support you need to help you to live independently.
A personal budget can be taken as a payment made directly to you, which is known as a direct payment. Or, if you would prefer, it can be managed for you by the council, or a partner organisation.
Using your personal budget
You may choose how to spend your personal budget, providing that it meets your eligible social care needs based on the outcomes agreed and outlined in your care and support plan.
Some examples of how a personal budget can be used include:
Eligibility
Not everyone is eligible for a personal budget. In some cases a person's needs may not be great enough, or they may have too much money to qualify for council funding.
The value of a personal budget is based on the cost of meeting your eligible unmet care needs.
Direct payments
A direct payment is a personal budget taken as a cash payment, made directly to you. It can also be paid directly to an authorised person or organisation acting on your behalf.
Direct payments can be used to buy your own care and support, and can give you a greater ability to choose and control your own care services and help you to achieve better outcomes.
Using your direct payment
You can use a direct payment to employ your own personal assistant to help and support you, and pay them a wage from your direct payment. If you employ someone directly as a personal assistant, expert help and advice is available on how to calculate and pay your employee’s wages, and how to undertake your responsibilities as an employer.
You may also use your direct payment to pay for certain types of equipment to help you live independently at home.
If you take your personal budget as a direct payment, you will need to keep a record of how you spend the money and the amounts that you hold in the bank account that you use for your direct payments - but you can get help with this if you need it.
The council will need to see your direct payment records usually every three months.
Are you visiting the Council’s Cash Office? You don’t have to queue if you’re paying:
Many of the services carried out by the Cash Office are already available online, such as paying for your Council Tax, Business Rates, Brown Bin Renewals and Fines. The rest of our services will be made available through the council website.
You can find more details in the leaflet in the 'Downloads' section titled Questions and answers - Peterborough City Council closing its cash office
If you have an invoice from Peterborough City Council to pay for care, you can do it on this page:
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