Proposed Changes to Fairer Contributions Policy For Adult Social Care

Background

Adult Social Care is delivered by the Council under the Care Act 2014.

The Council charges for this service subject to a financial assessment of the persons ability to pay towards their care. The financial assessment works out a maximum amount a person can afford to pay for their care. The person pays the higher of the cost of their care or the outcome of their financial assessment.

Where a person has capital in excess of £23,250 they are a full fee payer and can be charged the full cost of their support.

The Council has applied a cap on the maximum the person might be asked to pay for care in the person's home, even for full fee payers.

The Care Act requires local authorities to consider if there should be a maximum charge for people in the community. The statutory guidance suggests defining this as a percentage of the cost of a residential care bed and the Council has followed that principle.

The statutory guidance on the Care Act and the Council's fairer contributions policy are linked below:

Care and support statutory guidance - GOV.UK

Fairer Contributions Policy April 2015 (updated April 2021)

What do we want to change?

The Council is proposing two changes to how we charge people who receive adult social care in their own homes.

1. Increase to the maximum charge for non-residential care services

Currently, this charge is limited to a maximum of 80% of the standard residential care rate. This means that the maximum charge anyone receiving care at home must pay is £590 a week.

The proposed change would remove this limit in two stages:

  • First, by increasing the maximum to £737 a week (the current cost of a care home placement) from January 2026,
  • Then, removing the limit entirely from April 2026.

Why do we want to do this?

The change would mean that the charges people are asked to pay will better reflect the actual cost of their care. Removing the subsidy that the maximum charge provides would bring the policy more in line with the principle of people paying what they can afford for their care and the Council only funding what each person can not afford to pay. It also makes charging for local authority care more consistent with the cost of other forms of support.

The change would bring Sheffield’s charging policy in line with other local authorities, most of which do not have a maximum charge.

Who would this affect?

This change will affect people who:

  • Receive higher levels of care at home, and
  • Have savings or assets above £23,250

We know that the change may affect people who are worried about the costs of their care and the effect on their savings. However, if savings drop below £23,250, everyone is entitled to a reassessment of the charge they pay. When people hold less than £23,250 in savings they become entitled to financial support for the cost of their care. For people with high care costs this significantly reduces the amount people are required to pay.

In general this will impact elderly people although the policy applies to all adults in receipt of adult social care.

There are around 110 people expected to be impacted by this proposal with around 60 impacted by the second phase.

This change would have no impact on people in Residential or Nursing Homes.

2. New arrangement fee

The second change is to implement an arrangement fee of £500 a year for full-fee payers for the work involved in arranging, monitoring and administering care.

This is proposed to be implemented from January 2026.

Why do we want to do this?

Full fee payers have choices about what care they purchase. Purchasing Council-commissioned care can be good value for money for individuals but there is a cost associated with the procuring and servicing of these contracts. It is reasonable that a share of this cost is passed to the full fee payers who benefit from it.

The Care Act makes provision for this and the Council’s Fairer Contributions policy already allows for such charges to be applied.

The proposed fee has been calculated to reflect the cost of the additional work required, which is contracting and monitoring care, and administering a payment and charging system. The extra revenue would help to support the provision of high-quality care services.

Who would this affect?

The fee will only be charged to people who:

  • Ask the council to arrange their care, and
  • Have more than £23,250 in capital or savings.

In general this will impact elderly people although the policy applies to all adults in receipt of adult social care.

This will impact around 600 people throughout the city.

This change would have no impact on people in Residential or Nursing Homes.

Background

Adult Social Care is delivered by the Council under the Care Act 2014.

The Council charges for this service subject to a financial assessment of the persons ability to pay towards their care. The financial assessment works out a maximum amount a person can afford to pay for their care. The person pays the higher of the cost of their care or the outcome of their financial assessment.

Where a person has capital in excess of £23,250 they are a full fee payer and can be charged the full cost of their support.

The Council has applied a cap on the maximum the person might be asked to pay for care in the person's home, even for full fee payers.

The Care Act requires local authorities to consider if there should be a maximum charge for people in the community. The statutory guidance suggests defining this as a percentage of the cost of a residential care bed and the Council has followed that principle.

The statutory guidance on the Care Act and the Council's fairer contributions policy are linked below:

Care and support statutory guidance - GOV.UK

Fairer Contributions Policy April 2015 (updated April 2021)

What do we want to change?

The Council is proposing two changes to how we charge people who receive adult social care in their own homes.

1. Increase to the maximum charge for non-residential care services

Currently, this charge is limited to a maximum of 80% of the standard residential care rate. This means that the maximum charge anyone receiving care at home must pay is £590 a week.

The proposed change would remove this limit in two stages:

  • First, by increasing the maximum to £737 a week (the current cost of a care home placement) from January 2026,
  • Then, removing the limit entirely from April 2026.

Why do we want to do this?

The change would mean that the charges people are asked to pay will better reflect the actual cost of their care. Removing the subsidy that the maximum charge provides would bring the policy more in line with the principle of people paying what they can afford for their care and the Council only funding what each person can not afford to pay. It also makes charging for local authority care more consistent with the cost of other forms of support.

The change would bring Sheffield’s charging policy in line with other local authorities, most of which do not have a maximum charge.

Who would this affect?

This change will affect people who:

  • Receive higher levels of care at home, and
  • Have savings or assets above £23,250

We know that the change may affect people who are worried about the costs of their care and the effect on their savings. However, if savings drop below £23,250, everyone is entitled to a reassessment of the charge they pay. When people hold less than £23,250 in savings they become entitled to financial support for the cost of their care. For people with high care costs this significantly reduces the amount people are required to pay.

In general this will impact elderly people although the policy applies to all adults in receipt of adult social care.

There are around 110 people expected to be impacted by this proposal with around 60 impacted by the second phase.

This change would have no impact on people in Residential or Nursing Homes.

2. New arrangement fee

The second change is to implement an arrangement fee of £500 a year for full-fee payers for the work involved in arranging, monitoring and administering care.

This is proposed to be implemented from January 2026.

Why do we want to do this?

Full fee payers have choices about what care they purchase. Purchasing Council-commissioned care can be good value for money for individuals but there is a cost associated with the procuring and servicing of these contracts. It is reasonable that a share of this cost is passed to the full fee payers who benefit from it.

The Care Act makes provision for this and the Council’s Fairer Contributions policy already allows for such charges to be applied.

The proposed fee has been calculated to reflect the cost of the additional work required, which is contracting and monitoring care, and administering a payment and charging system. The extra revenue would help to support the provision of high-quality care services.

Who would this affect?

The fee will only be charged to people who:

  • Ask the council to arrange their care, and
  • Have more than £23,250 in capital or savings.

In general this will impact elderly people although the policy applies to all adults in receipt of adult social care.

This will impact around 600 people throughout the city.

This change would have no impact on people in Residential or Nursing Homes.

Page last updated: 16 Oct 2025, 11:02 AM