Surrey County Council Care Funding and Financial Assessment

Two assessments, in this order

The care needs assessment comes first. Under the Care Act 2014, anyone who appears to need care and support has the right to a free assessment of their needs, regardless of how much money they have. The council must carry it out, and it is not a means test.

Only after needs are identified does the financial assessment decide who pays. That is the means test, and it looks at capital and income.

This order matters practically. Some families with savings assume there is no point contacting the council. There is: the needs assessment produces a written statement of eligible needs, gives access to advice and equipment, opens the door to a carer's assessment, and creates the record that matters later if money runs down and council support becomes necessary.

You can request an assessment through Surrey County Council directly, and anyone can request one on behalf of a relative with their agreement.

What the financial assessment looks at

The financial assessment considers capital - savings, investments, and in some circumstances property - and income, principally the State Pension, private pensions and certain benefits.

England operates an upper and a lower capital limit. Above the upper limit you pay the full cost of your care. Below the lower limit your capital is disregarded and you contribute from income only. Between the two, you contribute from income plus a tariff income calculated from your capital. The figures are set nationally by government and are published on the NHS and GOV.UK pages on paying for care - always check the current figures rather than relying on a number you read somewhere last year.

For care provided in your own home, the value of the home you live in is not counted as capital. That is one of the most significant differences between home care and residential care, and one of the least understood.

The council must also leave you with a minimum income guarantee - a protected amount you keep for living costs - and must take disability-related expenditure into account, which is the part families most often fail to claim.

Disability-related expenditure: the part people miss

If you receive a disability benefit such as Attendance Allowance and the council counts it as income, it must also allow for the extra costs you face because of your disability. That is disability-related expenditure, and it reduces your assessed contribution.

It commonly includes extra heating, extra laundry, special dietary requirements, incontinence products not supplied by the NHS, community alarm and telecare costs, privately arranged cleaning or gardening you can no longer do, equipment maintenance, and additional bedding or clothing wear.

Councils do not always ask about these in detail. Keep receipts, list every extra cost the condition creates, and present them at the assessment. Families who do this routinely reduce their weekly contribution.

• Extra heating and hot water
• Additional laundry and bedding replacement
• Incontinence products bought privately
• Community alarm, telecare and equipment servicing
• Cleaning, gardening or shopping help needed because of the disability
• Specialist diet costs above the ordinary shopping bill

If the council will fund care: direct payments and choice

Where the council agrees to fund or part-fund care, you can usually take the money as a direct payment and arrange the care yourself, rather than accepting the council's contracted provider. A direct payment gives you control over who provides the care and when.

Direct payments can be used to buy care from a regulated provider, or to employ a personal assistant directly - which brings employer responsibilities including tax, insurance and cover when they are unwell.

Councils set the rate they will pay. If the provider you want costs more than the council's rate, the difference is usually a top-up. Ask for the council's rate in writing early, because it determines what is realistically available.

When it is the NHS, not the council

If someone's needs are primarily health needs rather than social care needs, funding responsibility can shift entirely to the NHS through NHS Continuing Healthcare. That is not means-tested, and where it applies it can fund a full care package at home.

The process begins with a checklist, usually completed by a nurse, social worker or GP, and if that is positive it leads to a full multidisciplinary assessment against four key characteristics: nature, complexity, intensity and unpredictability of need.

A diagnosis alone never decides it. Advanced dementia does not automatically qualify; a rapidly changing, unpredictable set of needs requiring skilled intervention often does. If a hospital or council team has never mentioned it and the person's needs look primarily clinical, you are entitled to ask for a checklist.

If you disagree with the outcome

Both assessments can be challenged, and challenges succeed more often than families expect, usually because something was recorded inaccurately rather than because anyone acted in bad faith.

Ask first for the written assessment and the calculation. Read what the council believes about a normal day - descriptions of needs are frequently based on the person's best day, or on what they said in front of a stranger, rather than on how things actually are.

If it is still wrong, use the council's formal complaints procedure. If that does not resolve it, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman investigates complaints about councils' adult social care decisions, free of charge. Independent advice is available from Age UK and from the free national helpline run by Independent Age.

Practical order of play for a Surrey family

Request the care needs assessment from Surrey County Council, and a carer's assessment at the same time if a family member is providing support. Both are free and both are legal rights.

Claim Attendance Allowance if the person is over State Pension age and needs help - it is not means-tested and does not depend on savings.

Prepare for the financial assessment by listing every disability-related cost, with receipts.

Get quotes from regulated providers so you know the real cost of the care being discussed. Reedsfield Care publishes its rates - visiting care from £22 per hour, live-in care from £1,150 per week - and is CQC-registered and rated Good, covering Egham, Staines, Ashford, Sunbury, Shepperton and Virginia Water.

If the needs look clinical, ask for an NHS Continuing Healthcare checklist before accepting a means-tested outcome.