Paying for your support at home

Social Care, unlike Health Care, is not free for everyone. Councils only have a limited amount of money and cannot provide services directly for everyone. This information explains how we work out your contribution to the cost of the support package you receive when you are living in your own home.

Contributions for people living in care homes are calculated differently and you can find information about that in our leaflet Choosing and Paying for a Care Home.

The information in these pages is currently being redrafted to reflect the changes we've made to our services as a result of the Local Government Spending Review and our subsequent consultations.

Working out your needs

The first step in setting up support services is an assessment of your care needs. We use the Government's Fair Access to Care Services guidance to help us decide the level of support you need. You can find out more about this in our Fair Access to Care Services information. A social care assessment is always free of charge.

If your needs are low or moderate, the Council will not be able to contribute to the cost of your support. However, we can provide information, advice and guidance about the kinds of services that would help you. These may be from the private sector, voluntary organisations or charities, and many of them are provided free of charge. You can also find services for yourself using our online service directory: http://mymanchesterservices.manchester.gov.uk/

If our assessment shows there is a critical or substantial risk to your independence and safety, the Council may be able to pay for some or all of your support. We will look at what help you need and work out what it all should cost. This gives you an overall annual budget for the cost of your support package.

Next, we will want to carry out a full financial assessment to see whether the Council can contribute to the costs.

You can download the content of these pages as a leaflet if you need to print it out.