BIRMINGHAM CITY COUNCIL'S
FAIRER CHARGES POLICY
Page Updated 31 July 2003
In April 2003 Birmingham City Council will implement the fairer charging policy to all people who receive services from Birmingham City Council Social Services.
From this page we hope to bring you the details you need to understand of what the charges are and how to avoid them if you can. Or details of whom you can contact for further help on the fairer charging policy if you require it. This page will be under continual development over the coming weeks and will improve we hope from its current sparse state. We also hope to present the information on this disability tax in an unbiased and straight forward manor.
This page is intended only to give a simple overview of the new charging policy. Where available we will provide more detailed information on the finer points of the charging process. You will find links to any such information in the text of the page and in the picture links down the side of the page.
OK so how did it get this far?
The City Council have no choice but to introduce a fairer charging policy as the Government require them to produce one by April 2003. The City Council did have a choice to choose no charges for anyone. This option was rejected by the Council and they chose one which requires everyone to pay some thing in relation to the level of their income.
The charging policy was brought into life after the department did some consultation with service users the results of this consultation can be found HERE. After this consultation a report was produced in the name of the Acting Director and presented to councillors in late December 2002. The report can be found HERE
After receiving the report Birmingham's Cabinet of elected members (councillors) took the decision which can be found HERE.
What does all this mean?
All person's over 18 years of age receiving a service from Birmingham City Council Social Services will be liable to pay charges
The end to multiple charging structures, all service users will be charged only once regardless of what services they receive from Birmingham City Council Social Services.
No charges will be made to carers for services provided to them by Birmingham City Council. (as Birmingham does not provide any direct services that would be chargeable to carers anyway not a big concession!)
Birmingham City Council have got to assess all service users for charges against the rules as laid down in the decision by cabinet.
No person must have an income after charges of less than Income Support + 25 per cent.
No charges can be levied until the service user has been reassessed under the new policy.
Charges will only be levied against the chargeable income.
What is the Chargeable Income?
All eligible income of the disabled person is counted up this gives the persons total income. Eligible income is things like Income support, Incapacity Benefit, Private Pensions, Disability Living Allowance care component etc. It DOES NOT include the Mobility component of DLA and if services are not provided at night or if services are provided at night but not during the day time then they can only take into account DLA care component at the middle rate.
The relevant rate of Income Support is calculated then 1/4 of that rate is added to come up with the minimum income.
The difference between the total income and the minimum income, is then known as the chargeable income.
A simple example of this (has to be simple my maths is not up to anything else!)
PLEASE REMEMBER THIS DOES NOT USE REAL FIGURES AND WE HOPE TO HAVE SOME EXAMPLES BASED ON REAL PEOPLE ON SITE AT SOME POINT.
Let us suppose a person with disabilities is assessed as having an income of £120 per week. Now let us assume that the Income support for this person would be entitled to is £60 per week £60 plus 1/4 equals £75 per week. £120 minus £75 equals a chargeable income of £45 per week.
So the council are going to charge me all the money I have above Income Support + 25 percent?
Not Necessarily, it is possible to raise extra disability related expenses against the chargeable income to reduce the amount of charges payable. If the disability related expenditure is high enough you may escape paying any charges, however no person will be charged more than £100 per week regardless of income.
Certain other expenses can also be taken into consideration like Rent, Mortgage, House insurance for homeowners (but not contents insurance) and any fees paid for day service excursions or residential respite care.
The statement above that the maximum charge is £100 per week may cause concern to some people but the person with disabilities income would need to be very high before you reach this maximum. The average charge for services is more likely to be between £10 and £30 per week.
Let us continue the example from above
Lets suppose that the person with disabilities has no rent and they live in a council house. Then suppose they have an assessed disability expenditure on things like extra washing, trips out from the day centre, extra clothing requirement etc. of £20 per week. This would leave them with the following equation.
£120 minus £75 minus £20 equals £25
They would be left with a weekly charge of £25 or in percentage terms about 20 per cent of their total assessed weekly income.
OK how would I work out what is a disability related expense?
There is a form which may be helpful in working out what disability related expenses a person may have. The form was devised by a carer from a similar one created by the disability coalition. You can download a copy of this form from HERE. If want copy of this form printed and sent to you or anyone else please ring either Birmingham Carers Association Helpline on 0121 686 4060 or for disabled people the Search Team on 0121 303 4044
One charge how does this work?
From April Birmingham City Council will not be able to make separate charges for separate services supplied to the disabled persons home.
This means that they will have to total up all the services provided in the care package (home care, day centres, domiciliary (domiciliary means provided in the disabled persons home) respite care (services like Crossroads and Birmingham Multi-Care etc.) and levy the charges against this amount.
But remember regardless of what this total service cost is they can only charge you up to the assessed chargeable income the person with disabilities has. If the person with disabilities are assessed as having no chargeable income the person with disabilities will pay nothing for the services they receive. If they are assessed as having £20 of chargeable income they will be asked to pay charges of £20 per week.
Ok so I will be charged but who do I complain to if I don't like the policy?
If you wish to complain that the council have chosen a policy that charges anyone then you should write to Councillor Susannah McCorry, Cabinet Member for Social Services and Health. You should also copy the letter to all the City Councillors in your ward.
If you wish to complain about the policy of charging disabled people for being less advantaged in society than any one else. You should write to The Rt Hon Tony Blair MP at 10 Downing Street. Copy the letter to you constituency MP and Mr Gordon Brown MP.
If you write to any of the above please copy the letter to Birmingham Carers Association and to the Search Team. You can send them to the same address in one envelope if you wish.
Should I refuse to pay and boycott the new charges?
It is the view of Birmingham Carers Association that this would be a brave but unwise action to take.
When charges were introduced for transport to younger adults day services a campaign of non-payment was started. Sadly, as with all such campaigns, you need 100 percent or near 100 per cent unity on the boycott or it will fail. Nowhere near 100 per cent of service users decided to boycott the charge so many are now facing large bills and possible legal action for their failure to pay the charge.
If you boycott these charges that is your choice and good luck to you. It is however very unlikely if a general boycott would receive anything but token acceptance and you may leave yourself open to legal action for recovery of any debt.
Be aware though that the City Council have stated in public meetings that they "will not remove any service from anyone who is not paying the charges".
We also think it unlikely that the City Council will take it to the ultimate action of taking disabled people who refuse to pay the charge to court. There are several distressing stages before this that we feel the city council will not stop at enacting if someone continuously refuses to pay the charges. These include having a charge made against state benefits and the possible use of bailiffs to seize debtors property.
Ok I have read all of this and I am still confused!
Then please ring the Birmingham Carers Association helpline on 0121 686 4060 and our Information Assistants will try their best to talk you through it and help you to understand what it could mean for you.
We are also trying to organise an information day on the subject but with lack of staff and volunteers to carry out the organising it may not materialise.
Anything else I should be aware of?
Birmingham City Council are still putting the finishing touches to the charging policy and they may decide to change some of the details between now and April 1st.
They may for instance decide to phase in charges to people who have never paid any charges. They also may decide to offer a compensation package should things go wrong in the agreed care package that are the fault of Birmingham City Council.
We will try our best to get details of any changes to the policy on here as soon as possible.
Update
Birmingham City Council has decided that younger persons living at home on state benefits are as a group unlikely to have enough income to cover the disability related expenditure so will not be subject to charges.
Charges for older adults will have a phased introduction starting in August 2003
The phasing takes effect in the following way;
If there is an increase of
less than £10.00 no phasing
between £10.00 - £20.00 pay £10.00
above £20 pay 50% of the increase
