Care and support

Hertfordshire County Council Standard Prices In County 2008/09

Care Category/No. and Description

Single Room Accommodation
Shared Room Accommodation

PRICE £ PER WEEK

1. Care Home for Elderly People
(Long-Stay) existing residents only 355.11 325.71
2. Care Home for Elderly People
High Needs Level (Long-Stay) 420.14 390.88
3. Care Home for Elderly People
Dementia Care and/or Mental Disorder (Long-Stay) 486.71 456.40
3a. Accredited provider rate
Care Home for Elderly People
Dementia Care and/or Mental Disorder (Long-Stay) 500.71 N/A
4. Elderly Care Home with Nursing
(Long-Stay)538.93 499.03
4a Block contract rate Elderly Care Home with Nursing
(Long-Stay) 554.75 N/A
5.Elderly Care Home with Nursing Dementia Care and/or
Mental Disorder (Long-Stay)594.86 553.70
5a. Block contract rate Elderly Care Home with Nursing Dementia Care and/or Mental Disorder (Long-Stay)611.03 N/A
6. Care Home for Elderly People (Short-Stay) 441.28 N/A
7. Care Home for Elderly People Dementia Care and/or Mental Disorder (Short-Stay) 508.34 522.34 (accredited provider) N/A
8. Elderly Care Home with Nursing (Short-Stay)560.00 575.75 (block contract rate) N/A
9. Elderly Care Home with Nursing Dementia Care and/or
Mental Disorder (Short-Stay)616.49 632.66 (block contract rate)
N/A

There are no standard rates for non-elderly.

What happens if I choose a home that is more expensive than these limits?

ACS will not normally pay above these limits unless you are assessed as needing more expensive care, or ACS has had to place you in a more expensive home. Therefore if you choose a home which is more expensive than these limits and ACS will not help with the extra cost, you will have to top up the amount paid. A "third party" can agree to pay the difference between the actual cost and the limits. A third party could be, say, a relative or a charity. The third party needs to sign an agreement, with the local authority, that they will meet the extra costs of the home. If the third party stops paying after you have moved in, ACS may ask you to move to another home whose charges are within it’s limits.

If a relative, friend or charity helps you to pay fees which are above the ACS limits, this money will be effectively ignored when ACS and social security decide how much financial help you should get.

Care homes now have to publish their fees in their service user’s guide, showing the cost of:-

• accommodation, including the provision of food
• personal care and
• where available, nursing care and whether the fees are net of any nursing care contributions paid by the NHS.

Is it possible to use my own money to top-up the difference?

Some residents can use their own money to top-up the difference if they choose to go into a more expensive home than ACS agrees to fund. This applies where:

• you are able to meet the full cost of the home yourself anyway (out of savings for example) but are just getting help with funding during the first 12 weeks of a permanent stay when your home is disregarded and/or
• you have a ‘deferred payment agreement’ with ACS and will eventually be paying the full amount back

If you are subject to the 12 week property disregard you may top-up from:

• disregarded income (e.g. mobility part of disability living allowance, war pension)
• disregarded capital so long as you will be left with capital of at least the value of the lower limit, currently £13,500. However this amount excludes the value of the property that has been disregarded by the financial assessment for 12 weeks
• disregarded earnings.

If you have a deferred payment agreement, you may top-up from:

• disregarded income as above
• disregarded capital, including the value of the property that is subject to the deferred payments agreement, so long as you will be left with capital of at least the value of the lower limit, currently £13,500. Where the value of the property is used as ‘collateral’ for top-ups, the amount of the top-up is added to the deferred payment, and will be recovered when the property is sold
• disregarded earnings

You can get more information from ACS about this.