Paying for care in a care home or nursing home

If you choose this option, you can get support from People Plus to manage your Direct

Payments. • Cambridgeshire County Council can manage the budget. This means the council will arrange care and support to meet your assessed needs. • A care and support provider or a third-party organisation (such as a home care provider or an independent living charity) can manage the budget on your behalf. • Any combination of these approaches.

People Plus is currently contracted by the council to provide the Direct Payments Support Service. Email: ilscambridgeshire@peopleplus.co.uk Web: https://peopleplus.mylifeportal.co.uk/

landing-pages/cambridgeshire

Tel: 0330 123 2815

Individual Service Fund (ISF)

An ISF is where you choose a provider, rather than the council or yourself, to manage your Personal Budget. The ISF provider will arrange services and support for you, with your agreement. With an ISF, you get choice and control over your support without having to manage the money yourself, which can be the case with a Direct Payment. Your family, advocate, or carer could also help you. You would work with the provider to plan support services and activities to help achieve the outcomes identified in your care and support plan. ISFs can be used for a range of different purchases if they demonstrate that they are achieving positive outcomes for you. The services and activities must help meet your assessed needs.

If your income, capital, and savings are more than the current threshold, you are likely to have to pay the full cost of your care. If you own your home, its value will usually be included when calculating your capital. Sometimes it won’t be included. For example, its value will be disregarded if it’s still the main home of your partner, a close relative aged 60 or over, or a close relative with a disability. Other exemptions may apply, call 0345 045 5202.

The care homes you consider must be able to meet your assessed care needs. If the council is contributing towards the cost of your care, your choice of care home will be limited to those that accept the council’s funding level. If the home you have chosen charges more than the council’s funding level, you must find someone to help pay the difference.

Except in limited circumstances, the law states that you are not allowed to make this additional payment yourself. The responsibility for this often falls to a member of your family or a benevolent sponsor such as a charity. Once confirmed, they must sign an agreement with the council formalising the arrangement. You may be able to arrange a Deferred Payment Agreement with the council. This is an arrangement which lets you use the value of your home to help pay for care home costs. This means the council could provide financial help which it will then recover once your home has been sold, or from your estate.

Visit www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk and search ‘paying for residential care’.

Who can pay top-up fees

You can only pay your own top-up fees in one of the following situations:

• You’ve just moved permanently into a care home and are in the 12-week property disregard period. Visit www.independentage.

org/get-advice/health-and-care/paying-for-

care and select ‘Selling your home to pay for residential care’.

• You have a Deferred Payment Agreement with the council.

• Your accommodation is being provided as aftercare under section 117 of the Mental Health

Act 1983.