Preparing for your child’s transition to adulthood: Webinar Q&A

Supported living in England aims to help people with disabilities or mental health needs live as independently as possible. Here’s a breakdown of the financial side:

1. Accommodation Costs
   Rent: You’ll typically have your own tenancy agreement and be responsible for paying rent. This could be to a housing association, landlord, or the local council.Bills: You’ll also need to cover utility bills (gas, electricity, water), council tax, and any other household expenses like internet or TV license.
2. Care Costs:
   Care charges: The cost of your care package will depend on your individual needs and the level of support required. This is usually covered through a combination of:Local authority funding: If you’re eligible, your local council may contribute towards the cost of your care through a personal budget or direct payments. You’ll need a care needs assessment to determine this – usually from a social worker.

   Your own contribution: Depending on your income and savings, you may need to contribute towards your care costs. A financial assessment will be undertaken.

3. Benefits:
   As a general overview, your whole income is taken into account, which includes your benefits. Then you are left with a minimum income that is guaranteed, and the rest goes towards your care.These are all about the person’s finances, not the families. Also, it can be helpful to think about what someone needs when their family aren’t there to support them – as we sometimes forget everything we do.

   Your Personal Budget (PB) from Social Care can be taken as a direct payment (DP) or services can be paid for by Social Care directly from your budget. If your support is paid for by your Health authority instead of Social Care – called Continuing Health Care (CHC) funding – it can also be called a personal health budget (PHB).

For more information on this answer please see our Transitions guide.

Generally speaking, with a registered care home, the Local Authority or Health authority will pay for everything and the person in the care home will be left with ‘pocket money’. With supported living, your relative manages all their benefits (with the support they need or a Deputy or appointee) which are used to pay for rent, utilities, food, activities etc. The money for their support either goes directly from the funding authority to the provider, or via a Direct Payment.

This will vary depending on the person supported, if they have the highest mobility level of PIP and how things are agreed with the house. Higher level of mobility component of Personal Independence payment can pay for a Motability vehicle for an individual.

Yes – there is usually children and young person’s social care, as well as adults social care. The age change between the two differs throughout the country. For some it is 18 years, and others it is up to 25 years.

Financially, each is different because once you turn 18, you are no longer the financial responsibility of your family and become an adult in your own right.

This seems to be different for different local authorities. Here in Suffolk, it is until you leave education, for instance. You should be able to find out via the Local authorities’ Local Offer website for your area.

Some benefits can’t be claimed while you are still in education. Contact.org.uk have a brilliant benefits helpline and can tell you in detail. For example, my son stayed in education until 24 but had direct payments for support when home in holidays. This may vary across the counties (contact.org.uk/help-for-families/information-advice-services/benefits-financial-help/).

PIP is paid directly to the claimant or their appointee, and it is a benefit from the DWP.

A personal budget is an amount of money from the local authority, allocated after an assessment.

The direct payment is from that budget and may be paid monthly and you spend it on the assessed needs, e.g. activities/personal assistant etc. You can get help to manage the budget.

For more information on this answer please see our Transitions guide.

Assessments would be funded by local authority and/or health authority.

Disability Related Expenditure (DRE) are costs you incur specifically because of your disability. They can offset the amount you contribute to your care, if agreed with the local authority during the financial assessment process. DRE can cover the cost of a Power of Attorney (PoA) and Deprivation of Liberty (DOLs) assessment etc. Here is a link to a chat bot that can help you describe these expenses – https://www.inclusionlondon.org.uk/chat-bot/

Yes – we cover Wales and please do send any questions via the Helpline if you require.

Family Helpline: 0300 303 9161 Mon – Fri 10am-12pm family.helpline@dimensions-uk.org

Your son should have his needs met and wishes taken into account. As per the Care Act. You may need to discover what their issue is about spending weekends at your home – if is transport costs, for instance, which most local authorities do not have a budget for, you may be able to compromise and offer to cover the transport costs. The Access legal charity’s chat-bot may be able to help you formulate a response www.accesscharity.org.uk/chatbot

Owain – “It was a while ago but the biggest issues I recall were around child and adult services not talking to each other and then child services just stepping away when Harry was 18. We had a couple of adult workers in short succession.”

Martin – “Always well-meaning but the last one worked hard for Harry and us although this was their first transition, and they were finding their way as well. My bullets referred to these points”.

It may be worth reaching out also to Worcester Association of Carers who can provide guidance locally – this is where two of our presenters from the webinar are from.

We can provide support through Dimensions Outreach – so yes, we do provide Support Workers in this way, but it will depend on whether Dimensions operate in your area. Your local Carers Centre may be able to help? They support family carers.

If you have the funding confirmed already then yes it would be possible to contact us directly but there will need to be liaison with your social worker as well.
Family Helpline: 0300 303 9161 Mon – Fri 10am-12pm family.helpline@dimensions-uk.org

If your daughter is below 18 this may be because of the funding differences between children’s social care, education, funding, and adult social care funding. Do call us on the family helpline or get in touch with Contact.
Family Helpline: 0300 303 9161 Mon – Fri 10am-12pm family.helpline@dimensions-uk.org

contact.org.uk/help-for-families/information-advice-services/benefits-financial-help/

A full understanding of the Mental Capacity Act and how to support decision-making will help here. It lays out how to assess whether an adult has full capacity to make each decision, and how their family can be involved. We find that not all practitioners fully understand the process, so it can be helpful if you do.

Click here for an easy read version

Paradigm and Dimensions’ Supported Decision-Making booklet.