Financial Assessment for Home Care Charges
We carry out a Financial Assessments to find out what contribution you must pay towards the cost of receiving support. We will look at your total income, capital and certain expenditure and apply a calculation to determine what you will be expected to pay.
If your capital is more than the 2025/26 upper threshold of £35,500, all chargeable elements of care and support are payable by you. The capital threshold is reviewed annually by Scottish Government.
We will contact you for information
- any pension or benefit statements
- bank and capital information (capital means the savings, investments and property you own, apart from your main home)
- details of other income – private pensions, earnings (net earnings are earnings after all taxes and expenses have been taken off*)
- details of your expenditure (includes rent, mortgage/mortgage interest payments, Council Tax, Water and sewerage charges and house buildings insurance)
*we will exclude up to £25 of your earnings in the calculation.
If you do not tell us about your income and capital, you will be charged the full rate for the services you receive.
The Calculation
Your information is used to calculate your assessed weekly income. If this is less than the minimum income threshold you cannot be asked to pay charges. If your assessed weekly income is more than the minimum income threshold, you will be charged for your service/s.
For 2025/2026, the minimum income thresholds are:
|
Single person under pension qualifying age |
£170 per week |
|
Single person over pension qualifying age |
£284 per week |
A percentage (%) is applied to any remaining income above these income thresholds, and this is the amount that you will pay. This is called the taper calculation. The percentage is set each year by us. The taper for 2025/2026 is 75%.
If you choose a service that costs more than the one we would organise to meet your needs, the amount of funding you get may not cover the full costs of your service. We will base our calculation on the cost of the services we would organise. This may mean that you need to organise and fund any care and support that costs more than this.
Once we have calculated what your charge will be, we will send you a letter telling you how much you must pay.
How to Pay
An invoice will be issued shortly after your calculation and letter advising of the payment amounts, due dates and payment methods.
Please note that Direct Debit is the preferred method of payment.