How have changes affected people?

Initial research indicates that:

• Two out of three clients are better off (paying less than before or nothing at all) with the new charges.
• One out of three clients are worse off (paying the same or more than before).

Will all non-residential services be charged for?

No. We recognise that our services offer different facilities depending on the needs of the people who use them. Some services offer other services within them, for example, as part of a care plan, someone may be going to a day centre to have help with a bath, while others at the day centre may not need this.

Definition of each non-residential service

We've looked hard at these services and tried to define which service will have a financially assessed charge made to it and the same with the flat rate charge for meal and transport.

Finance and Benefits Team (FAB)

Under the new system, to ensure that everybody pays a fair charge and to check that everyone is already claiming any full state benefit to which they may be entitled, a new joint agency finance and benefits assessment team has been set up.

We are unique in Devon, at the time of writing, in that we are the only Local Authority area in the country which has established a statutory / voluntary sector partnership operational Finance and Benefits Team in order to implement Fairer Charging.

The FAB Team is made up of:

• Department of Work and Pensions, Pension Service, home visiting officers based in local Pension Service offices.
• CAB home visiting officers (based in and employed by local Citizens Advice Bureaux across Devon).
• Devon Welfare Rights Unit, which is a project of the Citizens Advice Service and provides a development, training, consultancy and support role for visiting officers.
• Care Direct, which provides an operational project management role and acts as a central client referral and co-ordination point.
• Devon Social Services Client Financial Services Staff who carry statutory responsibility for financial policy matters; for final decisions on and notification to clients on individual client charges and for administration and collection of charges payable.

The visiting officers of the FAB Team work to an Operational Policy Guidance (327KB - pdf help) jointly compiled by: Devon Welfare Rights Unit, Devon County Council, The Pension Service and Care Direct.

New Charges:

• Charges for care services following the implementation of the Fairer Charging policy.