Home Care Charges for New Service Users * If you are in receipt of Independent Living Fund (ILF) the service is free * If you have capital/savings under £22,250; under the Fairer Charging Policy, you are entitled to a full financial assessment. This will determine the maximum weekly contribution you can make. You will be charged a rate of £8.20 per hour up to your assessed maximum weekly contribution. * If you have capital/savings in excess of £22,251 (excluding the value of your home), or decline to disclose your financial details, you will be charged at the rate of £15.50 per hour. * If you have capital/savings in excess of £47,501 (service users prior to 2007); or in excess of £22,251 (new service users after April 2007), excluding the value of your home; or decline to disclose your financial details, you will be charged at the rate of £15.50 per hour. You care package will be initially provided by our START Service and during this time (up to 6 weeks) you will be charged up to a maximum of 8 hours. A visiting officer will contact you to arrange for a convenient appointment to complete the financial assessment. Please note the information will be collated on a computer and you will be asked to confirm it is correct. All visiting staff have been issued with identity cards and you should ask to see this before allowing them to enter your home. If more than one carer attends to you at any one time, you will be charged for the actual care received. If you have two carers for one hour, you will be charted for two hours care. Recording time spent We use a monitoring system to ensure your visit is recorded correctly. Your Care Worker will log both the start time and finish time of the visit on the telephone. All calls are free and no charge is made to you for the use of your telephone. The actual hours recorded will be rounded up at the end of each week, to the nearest 15 minutes. You will be invoiced on a 4 weekly basis, using the information logged on the monitoring system. All data is checked centrally before your invoice is raised. Service Users having more than one carer If more than one carer attends to you at any one time, you will be charged for the actual care received for example if you have 2 carers for 1 hour you will be charged for 2 hours care. 24 hour notice policy You must give your provider 24 hours notice if you do not require a visit on a particular day if you do not give notice you may be charged for the visit. Unforeseen circumstances such as hospital admission would be taken into account. If your financial circumstances change you must contact either your care manager or the Home Care Charging Section on 01275 888 679 as it may be necessary for a new assessment/charge to be calculated. Community Meals (Meals on Wheels) Charges from 31 March 2008 Hot Meal £3.30 per meal Tea time £2.50 per meal Day Care Charges Charges are based on the number of attended sessions. You will be charged at the rate of £2.50 per session up to your assessed maximum weekly contribution. You will not be charged for planned absences such as hospital, doctor or dental appointments or reasonable unplanned absences such as sickness. A non-attendance charge will be applied for repeated failure to attend and failure to give sufficient notice. Emergency Communications Carelink Service Charges from 31 March 2008 Installation Charge £75.00 one off charge Weekly Charge £3.35 per unit per week This publication is available in large print, Braille or audio formats on request. Help is also available for people who require council information in languages other than English. Please contact 01275 882181. Produced June 08