Have your say on proposed changes to Adult Social Care fees and charges

We want your views on our proposed changes to Adult social care fees and charges and how this may affect you. The consultation runs from 1 July to 20 October 2019. Share your views with us now.

As part of our aim to provide support to those most in need, we have reviewed all the fees and charges we make for adult social care. We have found that Lambeth often charges less than other London boroughs or excludes elements of care packages from charging that other London boroughs include.

Given the financial constraints faced by the borough, this is no longer possible if we want to continue to support those residents most in need. Therefore a number of changes are being proposed to our fees and charges.

We know that no one wants to pay more and that older and disabled people already experience financial challenges, and as such we have kept the proposed increases as low as possible.

There are eight proposed changes in total. However, how these affect you will depend on your needs and current care package. Some will not make any difference to many people with current adult social care support packages.

The proposed changes are:

• Stop 6 weeks of non-chargeable domiciliary care. Reablement services will still be non-chargeable for up to six weeks
• Charge for domiciliary care for the second carer when two carers are required at the same time
• Increase the charges for Meals on Wheels from £3 to £4 per meal. This increase would be implemented in two phases, 50p from November 2019 and a further 50p from April 2020.
• Make the community alarm/technology-enabled care provision service chargeable and charge £4 per week for the service. There are other changes being made to this service
• Reduce the level of the standard Disability Related Expenditure allowance to £17.50 from November 2019 and then to £10 from April 2020
• Freeze the Minimum Income Guarantee at 2019/20 rates for older adults
• Introduce a charge for setting up deferred payments agreements
• Introduce a flat rate charge of £140 for brokering non-residential care services for self-funders

View the proposed changes to adult social care fees and charges leaflet.

Please take a look at the full Adult Social Care fees and charges proposed changes to help you have your say.

We want to know what you think about the proposals and, if you disagree with the changes, what alternative fees and charges you would increase.