Welcome to our July 2018 Em.Bold.en newsletter. This is a regular update to let you know what we’ve been doing and planned events for 2018.
The Embolden project (funded by Comic Relief) was started to give a strong voice for older families who have relatives with learning disabilities to influence decision makers, hold them to account and improve services.
Disability Related Expenditure
Contributing to the cost of your care – is a 25% allowance enough?
Anyone with a personal budget and claiming DLA (Disability Living Allowance) or PIP (Personal Independence Payment) will no doubt by now have received a letter from Oxfordshire Adult Social Care telling them what their new contribution towards the cost of their care will be.
This means that from the 1st October the amount that you are expected to pay towards the cost of your care services may have either increased or decreased depending on what you previously paid. OCC will no longer carry out an individual face to face financial assessment of your income and savings unless requested. Instead they will send out forms for individuals to provide details of their income and savings. They will deduct 25% of the care element of either DLA (Disability Living Allowance) or PIP (Personal Independence Payment) to allow you to keep part of this benefit to help towards any extra costs you may have due to your disability.
The care act statutory guidance says that the council must leave you with enough money “to pay for necessary disability-related expenditure to meet any needs which are not being met by the local authority”. If you feel that your disability related expenditure is more then 25% each month then you can request a visit from the Financial Assessment team to ask for an individual assessment.
They can be contacted on 01865 323642 or FinancialAssessmentTeam@Oxfordshire.gov.uk
Read the document for examples of Disability Related Expenditure:
Joint Statement from the Oxfordshire Transforming Care Partnership Board:
Oxfordshire review into the deaths of people with learning disabilities 2017-18
Statement from the co-chairs of Oxfordshire’s Transforming Care Partnership Board
“While we have known for many years that people with learning disabilities die earlier than the general population, the Learning Disability Mortality Review report made for grim reading and was deeply upsetting.
As co-chairs of Oxfordshire’s Transforming Care Partnership Board we feel it is important that we make public the work that is being done locally to explain how deaths of people with learning disabilities are investigated in our county. Despite the lower numbers of deaths reviewed, it is clear that there is still much work to be done to address these inequalities. We are however pleased that all deaths are now being reviewed in such detail. We welcome the recommendations contained in this report and the spirit of transparency and openness in which it has been shared.“
Gail Hanrahan (Oxfordshire Family Support Network) and Paul Scarrott (My Life My Choice)
Follow the link to read the full statement: Oxfordshire Transforming Care Partnership Board: Oxfordshire review into the deaths of people with learning disabilities 2017-18
Proposed Changes to Adult Social Care Contributions Policy by Oxfordshire County Council and Possible implications for people with a learning disability.
Oxfordshire County Council are proposing to streamline the current policy for assessing financial contributions. The consultation on this is open until April 3rd 2018
OxFSN believes that the council are genuinely seeking to simplify and speed up this process, and we understand why there is a particular focus on older people, as the largest group of people in receipt of social care services. However, we are deeply concerned that this is likely to have a much bigger impact on those with the most complex needs…
Read the response in full here:
Families asked us to produce some simple guidance on the Care Act 2014 so they know what their rights and rights of their relative are.
Follow the link to our:
Related information that will be of interest:
