Community Care Charges

Any information or experiences on Fairer Charging Policies and Community Care Charges sought.
My daughter went from paying £0 to £30 and now they are assessing again. Assessment only means an increase!
Many thanks

Hi
My adult son is currently charged £30 per week to attend a day centre. I have had a long discrimination/inequality battle with Lincolnshire County Council who provide day centres for people with alcohol and drug addictions and substance misuse free of charge. I have complained to the Local Government Ombudsman who unbelievably said that as long as everyone with a learning disability are charged and everyone with addictions are not charged then this is not discrimination. I tried the legal route and whilst I was told there was a case I could not get legal aid and was advised that it could cost thousands. We need a louder voice for people with learning disabilities to tackle disgraceful discrimination.

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Hi, firstly check your son’s financial assesment is correct and he has been allowed legitimate DRE. You need to ensure on behalf of your son, you put forward all relevant DRE (disability related expenses) -any additional reasonable expense that arises from your son’s disabilty should be allowed. I found a useful disabilty related expenses worksheet on National Autistic Society website to assist our case in reducing my son’s charges - I was successful. Further information can be found on various websites but in particular I found disabilityrightsuk.org and dpac.uk.net helpful. Unfortunately, those conducting financial assessments often have no concept of additional costs arising from disability and may try to stick to a standard limited list of examples. So, hopefully if you can evidence more disabilty related expenses you may be able to reduce the weekly charge. Good luck.

Lizzi, thanks for the response. I have been down this route and some very minor adjustments were made. I also put a case by identifying living costs/expenses, including having a signed rent agreement but this was all rejected. I have even used government living cost figures which again have been ignored.

many thanks Lizzi. will keep trying to lower the costs