Changes to Social Care Funding - December 2011

Our Fairer Charging Policy is what we use to decide how much you pay towards your care. We use the Department of Health's national guide for our policy. In the past Manchester has been able to charge people less than the national guide. However, due to the reduction in the Council's budget we can no longer afford to provide care at the current charges. As a result we've had to look at the way in which we financially assess customers.

We carried out a public consultation between May and September this year. All our customers were asked for their opinions. The feedback that customers gave us was taken into account and the Council's elected members approved all the proposals on 26 October - details can be found in the Council Meetings section.

You should also read about the changes to the Social Care Offer, a separate but related consultation carried out recently.

There are four changes to the policy and all have been agreed

The four changes to the Policy are:

1. We'll reduce the level of protected income from Income Support plus 45%, to Income Support plus 25%. 
2. We've removed the maximum charge of £250 a week for non-residential social care services so there is no longer a maximum charge. 
3. We've reduced the level of protected savings down from £23,250 to £14,250. 
4. We'll now take into account the Higher Rate Attendance Allowance / Disability Living Allowance as assessed income if a night time care need is recognised within your Individual Budget.

How to contact us:

If you'd like to talk to someone in person to make an enquiry, raise a concern, or for help and advice you can call the Contact Service on 0161 234 5001.

You can also contact us by:

• Email:  mcsreply@manchester.gov.uk
• SMS Text on 07860 003160
• Sign-video at www.manchester.gov.uk/signvideo
• If it's easier, you can get a friend or relative to contact us on your behalf. 

If you would like to make a complaint you can ring 0161 234 3946

Or write to Customer Feedback, Corporate Performance Group, Po Box 532 , Town Hall Manchester, M60 2LA.