Charging for Care Services

Dear Greenwich Borough Council,

Although I have covered some aspects of this topic briefly in a
current complaint to you, there are some very specific pieces of
information that I would like to know which I think will be better
served by making a FOI request.

1. What proportion of people known to the Social Services are
assessed as having a zero payment for care charges?

2. Of the people who are assessed of needing to pay a charge for
receiving a care service
a. What proportion have no other income than state benefits?
b. what proportion of have received a financial assessment within
the past 12 months
c. What proportion have had a review of their ability to pay using
a paper-based exercise i.e. without actually having received a
personal visit from a financial assessor (or for whom a financial
assessment was undertaken as part of an initial assessment /care
package review)

3. Of the people who have been assessed as having to pay a care
charge
a. what proportion then went on to received the amount of care
initially suggested
b. what proportion of people opted to receive less care than was
recommended as a result of being unable to afford the care charge.
c. what proportion of people decided not to take up a care package
as they couldn't afford the charges for care
d. what proportion of people would be able to received the same
service cheaper if the paid privately, rather than accept a package
from the council.

4. Of the people that have been assessed in 2010 as having to pay a
charge to the council -how many are having to pay more now (not
taking into account the few pennies in annual increase in benefits
which may affect the amount they are charged) than they were last
year despite there being not change in care package / financial
status.

5. Of the people assessed to pay a charge to the council but who
also received funding from the Independent Living Fund
a. how many are currently paying a contribution to care services
provided by the Independent Living Fund
b. how many people have received correct invoices that take into
account the money that they already contribute to the Independent
Living Fund charges and pay as Disability related Expenses
c. How many people have received invoices that incorrectly charge a
full amount, without having deducted the contribution towards the
ILF charge and/or the Disability Related expensed.

6 Of the people that have been overbilled (e.g. if money paid as a
disability related expense / towards the ILF contribution):
a. how many errors have been picked up by the council before any
incorrect invoices were sent out
b. how many errors have been picked up by the council but only
after one of more incorrect invoices had been sent / paid.
c. how many times a service user noticed that the invoice was
incorrect and had to bring this to the attention of the council
d what proportion of overbilling was rectified (either by paying
back excess money or by deducting overpayments from upcoming
invoices)
e what proportion of overbilling remains unrectified meaning that
the service user is out of pocket but that the council has gained?

7 Of the people assessed as having to pay a charge
a. what proportion of people recieve an invoice for charges within
4 weeks of assessment of having to pay?
b. what proportion receive an invoice that covers more than the
four preceding weeks?

8. What proportion of people have received backdated invoices
covering
a 1-2 months after assessment
b 2-3 months after assessment
c 3-4 months after assessment
d 5-6 Months after assessment
e. More than six months after having been assessed

9 The letter received following financial assessment states
"You will be charged UP TO your maximum weekly charge of £X
commencing on X date. The cost to you per week may be less than
this depending on the actual amount of service you recieve...you
will recieve an invoice EVERY MONTH in arrears..." (my capitals).
a Given that a person is told that they MIGHT have to pay the
maximum amount, but this is not certain, and the fact that there is
a mention of MONTHLY invoices is it not then entirely
understandable that anyone who doesn't receive an invoice within
the first month will assume that there is no amount due?
b. Is it then unrealistic to expect the individual to pay a large
backdated amount when, due to the council's omission invoices
weren't sent out within that first month?
c. What, therefore, is the council's policy regarding backdating,
and expecting to receive, backdated payments for care charges?
d. Does the council have an appeals procedure concerning
disagreements concerning the initial assessment / demands for
payment of very backdated invoices.

Please could you also provide any documentation concerning
implementing care charges as they are currently as well as any
consultation documents, review documents and reports to cabinet and
their decisions based on these documents. I would also like any
information about recent changes on how the financial charging
assessment and implementation has changed as well as documents
concerning the possible future changes.

I hope that by wording my request as a specific questions and
subsections that I will get a response that covers all these points
rather than just a general statement
Yours faithfully,

Jenny Hurst

Dear foi,

You sent the following statement:

"Your Request has been logged as RFI/02386. You may expect a
response within the prescribed 20 working days time period, i.e. by
04 October 2010."

It is now after close of play on the 4th and I have not received a
reply.

I would like to request an internal review.

The detail of my request can be found at
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ch...

Yours sincerely,

Jenny Hurst

Dear Alan Soskin,

Thank you for your reply.

I am at somewhat of a loss to understand why it has taken longer
than the prescribed time just to come back with a standard reply,
and particularly why Mr Nawrocki had to be bothered just to
authorise the response (if indeed he was -going by the date of your
colleague's email advising of the wording to use - details which
you tried recalling).

At least some of the issues I have enquired about should have been
readily available from the team that administers the financial
aspect of direct payments / the financial assessment team - so this
wouldn't have required a "script" to be written to glean this
information. I admit that I have been rather precise about the
information I had requested merely to make it easier to pick out
the individual bits of information rather than trawling through
everything.

I will endeavour to resubmit my request for information but will
break down this down into a series of smaller, hopefully more
manageable (and less expensive)requests.

Yours sincerely,

Jenny Hurst