Disability Related Expenditure
Is life more expensive because of your disability or Illness?
You could be entitled to a reduction in your care charges.
1. What is Disability Related Expenditure?
Disability Related Expenditure, or ‘DRE’ is the extra expenses you face
because of your disability or il ness. These can be anything from heating to
clothing, specialist food to basic domestic or gardening services. This
should be clearly recorded in your Care and Support Plan.
If you have a disability benefit and pay towards your care, the amount you
pay may be reduced to make al owance for these extra expenses, if these
conditions are met:
• you have some evidence that you buy the items or services regularly,
• they are reasonable expenses given your level of need
• they are not provided to you in another way (for example through your
mobility benefits, your Personal Budget or a charitable grant).
• The cost is reasonable for the type of expense.
Any reduction in your care charges will depend on the expenses you tell
us about. It’s important that you tel us about everything. Below is some
guidance about what can be claimed as Disability Related Expenditure and
how to make sure your expenses are taken into account.
2. Do I qualify for DRE?
To qualify to have your contribution reduced because of your extra
disability expenses, you must:
• Be using Social care services which are chargeable under the Royal
Borough of Greenwich Charging Policy.
• Be in receipt of disability benefits, for example Attendance Al owance,
Disability Living Allowance (Care Component) or Personal
Independence Payment (Daily living Component)
3. Flat Rate
When working out how much you can afford to pay in your Financial
Assessment, we will make a standard allowance of £15.30 per week for
everyone who receives disability benefits. This means that you only need to
claim disability related expenditure and provide evidence if you believe you
have disability-related costs of more than £15.30 per week.
4. What sort of thing can I claim for?
Please see the
end of the document for a longer list of Disability
Related Expenses. Here are the main categories of things you may claim for.
•
Specialist items and services: you may use things that are made
special y to help with your disability, such as wheelchairs which may have
additional costs, like repair and insurance.
•
Increased use of non-specialised items and services: you may
have to use things more because of your disability such as transport and
heating.
•
Higher cost non-specialist items and services: you may have to
use things that cost more than average such as paying for domestic
support or home delivery of shopping.
•
Remember, not all costs are eligible. For instance, if you choose to
buy items / services when there is a cheaper alternative that meets your
needs, or if it is something that could be provided by the NHS for free. If
you are unsure whether a cost counts as Disability Related Expenditure
or not, include it on the form anyway.
5. How do I apply for Disability Related expenditure to be
taken off my contribution?
If you think your disability related expenses are no more than £15.30 per
week, there is nothing you need to do.
The financial assessment team can send you a DRE claim form that you can
complete and return with your evidence that is required, or the officer can
visit you to complete and view your evidence.
If you do not receive a qualifying benefit the financially assessment officer can
assist you in completing the form for the DWP, who wil decide if you are
entitled to receive the appropriate benefit, if received you can then apply for a
DRE assessment.
6. How do I work out what my Disability Related Expenses
are? It can be difficult to think about DRE. Your life is what you experience every
day and you are probably not used to considering what additional costs you
incur each month due to your disability.
Think about your day-to-day life and what items and services you use. Try to
think about what differences there are between what you have to spend
compared to a relative, friend or neighbour who does not have a disability or
long-term health condition.
You may use some items and services more at certain times than others. It
may help to look through records you have about your disability and any
invoices/ bil s receipts to see what you spend in a week/month/year and which
costs arise from your disability. It may be easier to think about the extra costs
you spend over a whole year.
7. What evidence will I need to provide?
The Council will process all reasonable costs without you having to provide
evidence.
The Council will ask for evidence of any particularly high or unusual DRE.
Evidence could be:
• Proof of the expenses such as bil s/ invoices/receipts, contracts and
bank statements, along with an explanation of why an expense is
because of your disability.
• Your Care and Support Plan, (co-produced with your social worker),
can highlight disabilities or medical conditions which give rise to your
DRE.
If you do not have evidence: Don’t worry, you can stil apply. You then
have 3 months to gather and submit your evidence. During this period, any
care charges you have been asked to pay must continue to be paid.
The below list includes examples of the sort of expenditure that could be
claimed, what is considered a reasonable cost (anything below this does not
require evidence), as well as where actual costs will be considered which will
require evidence.
8. Examples of Disability Related Expenditure
Everyone’s costs will be different, and a list of examples
cannot contain everything. If you have a Disability Related
expense that is not listed below, you should still include it on
your form and we will consider it.
Not al costs wil be considered eligible. For instance, if you choose to buy
items / services when there is a cheaper alternative that meets your needs, or
if it is something that could be provided by the NHS for free.
Regular expenses: We wil ask for evidence of your regular expenses to see
how much you spend and how often. This will al ow us to work out your
weekly average.
For example: Elsie cannot clean her flat and this is not covered in her
care plan. Elsie spends £16 per week for a cleaner to help her. Elsie has
provided the receipts for the last 4 weeks showing her expenditure. We
have awarded £16 of DRE per week.
One-off expenses: Larger, one-off expenses are usual y for equipment or
adaptions, such as wheelchairs or hoists. Always do your research and check
with your social worker if the equipment you need can be provided or funded.
We wil consider this and any cheaper alternatives available on the market. We
cannot consider DRE for equipment purchased using grants or funded by the
NHS.
For example: Rahul spent £3,000 for a powered wheelchair. We have
found that a similar wheelchair costs £2,500, so we can only consider
£2,500. We have divided £2,500 by 500 (10 years life expectancy of the
wheelchair) and arrived at £5 DRE per week.
Expense
Details
Tips and Evidence
Required
Community If you use Telecare, a
Actual Cost with
alarm
community alarm service or
Contract / Bil s from
warden-call system you can
Provider
include the weekly cost in your
Disability Related Expenditure
claim.
Expense
Details
Tips and Evidence
Required
Clothing/ shoes/ You may have extra costs if
Need identified in the
bedding
you need to get clothes or
Care and Support
shoes specially made or
Plan
adapted (e.g. having buttons
replaced with Velcro).
Receipts
You may have extra costs of
replacing clothing /shoes
(including carers’ clothing) due
to damage caused by a
behavioural difficulty
Heating
You may have higher heating
Receipts /Annual
bil s if you feel the cold and
statement. Costs over
need the temperature set
these standard annual
higher, you need the heating
amounts are allowed:
on constantly at night, or you
Single person – Flat/
spend more time at home
Terrace £1,311.00
because of disability and use
Semi Detached
more power.
£1,392.44, Detached
£1,694.10
In the same way if you have a
carer who needs to be awake
Couple Flat/Terrace
at night, you may need to have £1,729.65, Semi-
the heating on more.
Detached £1,835.18
Detached £2,233.18
Gardening or
If you pay someone to do basic Receipts for three
housework
garden maintenance/ domestic months
assistance where you cannot
do this, or you require
Evidence of need and
adaptions or equipment to do receipt
it.
Expense
Details
Tips and Evidence
Required
Private Care
If you require additional
Need identified in the
support to meet your care and Care and Support
support needs and you pay for Plan but not covered
this (it’s not funded by the
by your Personal
Council) this can be a disability
related expense- for example: Budget
• private therapies such as Receipts for three
counselling, chiropody,
months
physiotherapy.
• sensory pool or room,
reflexology, massage,
music therapy, natural
remedies, therapeutic
activities and breaks.
Transport and
Use of taxis if you are unable
Receipts if on your
travel (after any to use public transport or the care and support plan
mobility benefit taxi card service.
and the amount is
you receive)
over your weekly
Transport to health
mobility benefit
appointments where hospital
transport is not available or
suitable.
If you need to pay for your PA/
carer’s travel costs while they
support you to attend
appointments or take part in
work/ activities you can claim
for this if it is not covered by
your Personal Budget.
If you receive the mobility
component of DLA or PIP, the
transport costs you include
must be the amount you need
to pay more than the mobility
benefit
Expense
Details
Tips and Evidence
Required
Specialist
Do you spend extra on
Care and support plan
washing powder washing clothes or bed linen
may identify a need. If
or laundry
or need to change your
not evidence from
clothes more often due to
other sources and
your disability? This may be
consideration of the
because of incontinence
nature and impact of
problems. You may need
any health problem or
frequent cleaning of furniture
disability may provide
and carpets, and protective
a guide.
treatments to minimise
Identify more than 4
damage or staining, due to
loads per week
disability.
Wheelchair
Wheelchair purchased if
Evidence of purchase.
required model is not provided
free of charge by the NHS
Powered bed
Purchased if required but not
Evidence of purchase
provided free of charge by the if available. Cost
Council/ NHS
divided by 500 (10 yr
life) up to a maximum
of £4.43 per week
Powered
Purchased if not provided free Evidence of purchase
reclining chair
of charge by the Council/ NHS if available Cost
divided by 500 up to a
maximum of £3.52
per week
Stair-lift
Purchased if required and not
Evidence of purchase
provided free of charge by the without Disabled
Council/ NHS
Facility Grant input.
Cost divided by 500
up to a maximum of
£6.27 per week
Hoist
Purchased if required and not
Evidence of purchase
provided free of charge by the without Disabled
Council/ NHS
Facility Grant input.
Cost divided by 500
up to a maximum of
£3.07 per week
DRE
Details
Tips and Evidence
Required
Chemist items / If you pay for your
Need identified in the
Prescriptions
prescriptions for medication
Care and Support
and other chemist items which Plan
are needed due to your
Prescription card
disability. This may also include £104 per year
things that your Carers use.
Receipts for three
months
This may include additional
pads/panty liners, continence
pads, latex gloves if not
provided by support),
disposable aprons, specialist
creams, additional wet wipes,
toilet paper, bandages /
plasters / dressings
Special Diet &
Special dietary needs that
GP letter
Food
means food is more expensive Receipts for the
than normal food purchases
additional cost.
due to your il ness or disability. Need identified in
You may have allergies to
Support Plan
certain foods or ingredients,
which make meals more
expensive
Internet Access You may be unable to leave
Evidence of how
and telephone
your home or have sensory or shared and eligible
mental health issues which
need.
mean that you, or your carer, Need identified in the
have to manage your affairs by Care and Support
a computer.
Plan
If you share your home with
£2.70 internet
others the costs should be
£2.70 phone
shared and only the share for
the person claiming should be
included as DRE.