If you believe a relative or yourself may require assistance in your home due to illness, injury, convalescence or age related issues, finding out where to get help is much easier than you might think. Funding your care will be a worry for a lot of people and knowing who should provide the care will equally be a source of concern. Below we have set out who and why you should contact certain organisations and the assistance they may provide:

• Your local Adult Social Care (ASC) team should be your first call who are part of local authority social services (see our useful contacts). ASC will provide advice and assess your case by arranging a meeting. You may then have a number of visitors coming to your home to see how you are coping and how you get around and recommend certain services or equipment to help you. Local authority social care is means tested and depending how much your annual income (including savings) is, you may have to contribute to or fund your care entirely. This does not include the value of your property unless residential care is required!

• Following an illness or injury which requires assistance when at or going home everyone is entitled to 6 weeks free care and support from the NHS and/or your local authority. This is often called Intermediate Care and should be arranged before you are discharged from hospital. During the 6 weeks your ongoing needs will be assessed and a plan put in place (with your input and agreement) for ongoing arrangements. You will also have your financial position assessed to see how much (if any) you will be asked to contribute to your package of care. 

• We strongly recommend visiting the  Disability Rights UK (link) website which provides information and links to a number of organisations that provide advice and help on dealing with social services, legal matters (power of attorney etc), benefit entitlement and much more. 

• You may be entitled to Attendance Allowance (link) which is a state funded benefit for people above state pension age who have some form of disability or illness and require help. This benefit is not means tested and available to everyone regardless of income. You do not have to have a Carer and can still be working.

• If you are providing care to a relative or partner you may be eligible for Carer’s Allowance. This is paid to people providing more than 35 hours of help per week for care, shopping, bill paying etc. and includes looking after your spouse or partner.