Finance

Paying for care and support when your child turns 18

When a young person turns 18, they're legally an adult. This means the way their care and support is assessed, and how it's paid for can change. This page explains what the young person and their parents/carers need to know about financial assessments and contribution charges as your child moves into adult services.

What changes at 18?

Once your child turns 18:

• They may need to make a financial contribution towards the cost of any care and support they receive
• They're legally responsible for their own finances
• Any financial assessment will be based on the young adult's income and capital, not the parent’s
• Parents’ income, savings, and property aren't taken into account

We must understand the young adult's financial situation before deciding whether we can help pay towards the cost of adult care and support. We do this by completing a financial assessment.

What's a financial assessment?

A financial assessment looks at:

• Income - money the young adult receives regularly
  
• Capital - money or assets they own
  

This information is used to work out how much the young adult can afford to contribute towards their care and support.

After the social worker/social care practitioner has requested a financial assessment, we'll issue a form known as the financial declaration form to collect the young person's financial information. We'll ask for this form or an online financial assessment to be completed and returned by a specific date.

If the young adult chooses not to complete a financial assessment, we'll assume they can pay the full cost of their care themselves.

What income is taken into account?

Income can include benefits such as:

• Disability Living Allowance (DLA)
• Personal Independence Payment (PIP)
  
• Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
  
• Universal Credit (UC)
  

Wages from paid employment aren't counted as income for the assessment.

Capital

Capital is money or assets the young adult owns or can access.

What counts as capital?

We usually count:

• Savings and money in bank accounts
• ISAs and Premium Bonds
  
• Shares
  
• Land
  
• Property they own but don't live in
  
• Their share of jointly owned capital, land or property (other than their main home)
  
• Capital disposed of to bring their capital resources to under £23,250
  
• Money they may have a saved for a specific reason
  

What isn't counted as capital?

We don't usually count:

• The home the young adult lives in
• Personal injury compensation managed by a court appointee (unless intended to pay for care)
  
• Certain investment or savings bonds with insurance
  
• Money from selling a home if it's intended to buy another one
  

These lists aren't exhaustive. A full list is in schedule two of the Care and Support (Charging and Assessment of Resources) Regulations 2014.

Capital limits - what do they mean?

The amount of capital a young adult affects whether we can help with costs:

• Over £23,250 - the council does not have to provide financial support
• Between £14,250 and £23,250 - capital is taken into account, but support may still be available
  
• Below £14,250 - capital is ignored for charging purposes
  

Only capital belonging to the young adult is considered. Parents’/carers’ savings and assets aren't included.

How are weekly charges worked out?

When working out weekly charges, we:

• Look at income and capital
• May allow for some extra expenses (disability related expenditure/essential expenditure)
  
• Allow for the minimum income guarantee
  
• Work out the young adults' available income
  

The weekly charge will be the lower of either:

• The cost of the support provided
• The young adult's available income
  

The expected annual cost of support is called a personal budget. This is made up of:

• What we pay
• What the young adult is assessed as being able to pay themselves
  

The amount the young adult is asked to pay is worked out weekly, but the overall budget is based on the total cost of care over the whole year. This means charges are spread across the year, rather than matching exactly what care is used each week. Because of this, they may still be charged in weeks when no care is received, for example during a short hospital stay.

At the end of the year, we check the actual cost of the care provided. This is called a personal budget reconciliation. If the young adult has paid more than the care actually cost, the extra money will be refunded.

Disability-related expenditure (DRE)

Disability‑related expenditure (DRE) refers to the extra costs someone has because of a disability or long‑term health condition. We take into consideration requests for DRE based on costs that the young person incurs themselves - not costs incurred by parents or carers.

Essential expenditure

If your young person lives independently of you, reasonable household and living costs may be taken into account as part of the assessment.

If your young person continues to live with you, allowances won't normally be made for household costs such as rent, utilities, food, or council tax, as these aren't considered the young person's responsibility.

Minimum income guarantee (MIG)

The MIG is the amount of money the government says a person must be left with each week to cover basic living costs when they receive adult social care at home or in the community. When we work out how much your young person should pay towards their care, we'll make sure their income isn't reduced below this level. The MIG is a legal protection under the Care Act and the amount varies depending on a person's age and circumstances.

Hospital discharge and short‑term support

If a young adult needs short‑term help after leaving hospital, they may receive support from:

• Integrated Care Support (ICS)
• START (Short Term and Re‑ablement Team)
  

Up to six weeks of this support may be free of charge (this may be less than six weeks, depending on individual circumstances). If support is needed beyond this, a financial assessment will be carried out.

What if circumstances change?

You or the young adult must tell us if circumstances change. For example:

• A change in income or benefits
  
• A hospital stay of more than four weeks
  
• If the young person moves out of the family home
  

You should let us know about any changes within one month. If we find out about a change later on, we may still backdate the charges to when the change actually happened.