Complaining about starting to be charged or being charged more

Your local authority has a legal duty to assess your financial situation fully before they start to charge you or charge you more. Have they done this? If they didn’t, point this out to them. If they did assess you, did they take account of all the extra expenses you have? These are the ones arising from your condition or impairment. You may come across this referred to as ‘disability-related expenditure’. If not, you can ask for a new assessment to be done – see Getting the best out of your assessment. Alternatively you can list the expenses and ask them to take them into account.

Working out what your extra expenses are can be quite complicated. Get help from an adviser if you can - see further help on social care. If you can’t speak to an adviser, you can do it yourself.

Remember to include:

• any care you pay for yourself
• taxis
• travel to medical appointments
• equipment
• prescription charges
• extra food costs, if you find it hard to cook or have special dietary needs
• extra clothing costs, if you need more clothes or to get things cleaned more often than other people
• extra heating expenses, if you are at home more than other people
• the cost of services you cannot provide yourself, for example, cleaning, gardening, fixing things in your home

Ask friends or family to check you haven’t forgotten anything. Find as much evidence as possible for these expenses. For example, receipts, bills or bank statements. Your local authority may ask to see this evidence.

Check also that they have calculated your income and the charges they propose making correctly. An adviser can help you do this - see Further help on social care.