Council's Disability Expenditure Under The Spotlight
Tuesday, 02 February 2010 11:40 | 
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At a rare meeting of the Cabinet Member for Community Services at Coventry City Council on 26th January 2010, a decision was taken to go out to consultation on changes to the assessment for disability related expenditure for non-residential adult social care services. From 8th February, a 12 week consultation period will be launched to seek comments from the public on how disability related expenditure is assessed and how a user's contribution to their personal budget will be calculated.
Commenting, Councillor Jim O'Boyle, Shadow Member for Community Services said: "I understand that legal advice the council has been given is that the current way the calculation is made to assess a persons disability related expenditure is potentially discriminatory. This is because they currently have a so called 'disregard' which amounts to 25% of a person's potential income after costs and charges have been assessed and worked out. To avoid further assessment, the 25% level was applied. This is set to go under the consultation. Now, a person's disability related expenditure will be assessed and an amount allowed subject to the necessary evidence produced by the individual such as receipts or bills.
"Whilst this may solve the problem of being non discriminatory, it does have an unknown cost. Currently, the cost of the disregard amounts to about £600K per year. If this new system proves to be more costly, then I hope the Council will cover the costs and its obligations. I say this because Labour put forward an alternative budget on the 8th December at the annual budget setting at full Council which included very tellingly £540K extra funding found from other Council resources for social care to help with this exact agenda of personalisation. We all know of course that the Conservatives rejected this.
"I also hope the Council listen very carefully to people and their carers to help our citizens get the care and help they need and deserve instead of doing a very dry calculation in order to avoid either possible legal challenges or potential added costs."
At a rare meeting of the Cabinet Member for Community Services at Coventry City Council on 26th January 2010, a decision was taken to go out to consultation on changes to the assessment for disability related expenditure for non-residential adult social care services. From 8th February, a 12 week consultation period will be launched to seek comments from the public on how disability related expenditure is assessed and how a user's contribution to their personal budget will be calculated.
Commenting, Councillor Jim O'Boyle, Shadow Member for Community Services said: "I understand that legal advice the council has been given is that the current way the calculation is made to assess a persons disability related expenditure is potentially discriminatory.
"This is because they currently have a so called 'disregard' which amounts to 25% of a person's potential income after costs and charges have been assessed and worked out. To avoid further assessment, the 25% level was applied. This is set to go under the consultation. Now, a person's disability related expenditure will be assessed and an amount allowed subject to the necessary evidence produced by the individual such as receipts or bills.
"Whilst this may solve the problem of being non discriminatory, it does have an unknown cost. Currently, the cost of the disregard amounts to about £600K per year. If this new system proves to be more costly, then I hope the Council will cover the costs and its obligations. I say this because Labour put forward an alternative budget on the 8th December at the annual budget setting at full Council which included very tellingly £540K extra funding found from other Council resources for social care to help with this exact agenda of personalisation. We all know of course that the Conservatives rejected this.
"I also hope the Council listen very carefully to people and their carers to help our citizens get the care and help they need and deserve instead of doing a very dry calculation in order to avoid either possible legal challenges or potential added costs."
