Funding your care

When making the decision to arrange care and support for yourself or a family member can seem a bit of a daunting prospect, it is the type of thing we don’t really seem to think about until the time comes when it is needed. Which is why we will help you out every step of the way.

Knowing your options for funding home care is vital, so please see the information we’ve supplied below for your assistance. However, if you would prefer to speak to someone here at Aylecare regarding this, then please feel free to contact us and we’ll be more than happy to go through it all with you.

Local Authority support

The first point of contact should be Adult Social Services, they can be contacted from your local council website. For instance, Swansea’s Adult Socal Services Intake Team contact information can be found here. They will assess whether you
will be granted funding for Care & Support at Home.

If you’re successful with receiving funding support from the local authority, you do have the option to choose Direct Payments instead.

Direct Payments

Although funded by the local authority, direct payments give you greater choice and flexibilty over the way you receive your care.

If you been purchasing care privately from a domiciliary care agency, such as ourselves, before being assessed as eligible by the local authority, then, direct payments allow you the continuity of care of carrying on with the agency.

Direct payments also gives you the freedom of choice to choose how you want to use it.

  • Purchase care through a private domiciliary care agency, such as Aylecare.
  • Employ someoe directly to help you with your care, such as a personal assistant.
  • You could even have some of your care needs provided by the local authority and “top up” others yourself.

With employing someone directly, it is worth remembering, you will then be classed as an employer and will have to follow employment laws such as:
Individuals you employ, must:

  • Have an employment contract
  • Be given payslips
  • Not work more than the maximum hours allowed per week.
  • Be paid at least the National Minimum Wage.

You will also be responsible for:

  • Deducting and paying the employee’s Income Tax and National Insurance contributions.
  • Paying statutory benefits, eg maternity pay and sick pay.

Further information regarding the law around employing carers, can be found on Direct.gov.
There are also organisations who can assist you with employing a carer directly.

Privately purchasing care

The other option you would have with funding your home care, would be to purchase care privately.

This may be done for different reasons, such as:

  • You did not qualify for the means-tested funding through your local authority.
  • The local authority isn’t providing all the care you would like so you “top up” the amount of care with private payments.
  • The local authority doesn’t quite provide the extra services you need, such as domestic tasks, like shopping and cleaning.
  • You may wish to purchase extra care, to allow a loved one to have a bit more support or for a family member to have some time away from caring.

There are also ways you can get support for funding your home care, such as Attendance Allowance for those over 65 meeting the criteria.

Whichever route you take for funding your home care, if you would like a chat or more information, you can call us on 01792 895150 at a time thats convenient for you to discuss your needs.

We look forward to supporting you through this tough time.