Appeals
19.1 The person or their representative have a right to appeal any decision made on the financial assessment.
19.2 Any appeal should be made in writing to the financial assessment and benefits team within 14 days of notification of the person’s contribution.
19.3 When an appeal is received, the council will assign a different financial assessment officer to review the person’s contribution and notify the person of the outcome within 7 days of the completed revised assessment.
19.4 If the financial assessment remains the same, and the person or their representative remains unhappy, they can request the case is reviewed by the lead financial officer who may take it to the council’s adult social care financial panel (see 19.11)
Waivers
19.5 If a person feels their assessment is correct, but is unaffordable, they can request that the charge, or part of the charge is waived.
19.6 The council will usually only waive a charge in exceptional circumstances where the charge would have a significant detrimental impact to a person or their dependents.
19.7 The charge to be waived must be for a specific period of time and subject to review.
19.8 A waiver request must be referred to the financial panel by a person’s social care worker or debt recovery officer.
19.9 If a waiver is agreed, the person will not have to pay the amount requested in the waiver, however will be asked to pay anything outstanding, or on-going to the council.
19.10 The council will work with the person to support them paying any debt, and arrange re-payment plans where appropriate.
Financial panel
19.11 Specific areas of an appeal may be presented to a financial panel, such as:
- Appeals against Financial Assessments
- Unusual Disability Related Expenditure (DRE) claims and appeals
- Deprivation of assets appeals
- Direct Payment appeals
- Waiver requests for assessments and charges
- Deferred payment appeals
19.12 The financial panel is made up of a group of council officers, including representatives from the social care teams, financial teams and Assistant heads of services. The complaints manager and a representative from the council’s legal services attend to provide advice. The aim of the financial panel is to ensure person centred and consistent decision making to ensure as far as possible people with similar needs and circumstances are treated similarly.
19.13 A person with care needs, or their representative may ask the council officer who is supporting them (either social care worker, or financial assessment officer) to bring any financial concerns to panel if they dispute a decision.
19.14 The financial assessment officer or social care worker may also refer cases to panel if they feel the decision would benefit from a collective conversation. The person or their representative will be informed of this.
19.15 Panel generally meet every 4 weeks, but they may be called at anytime to review urgent cases.
19.16 The outcome of panel will be sent to the person or their representative within 14 days of the decision and provide sufficient information as to how the panel considered the request and further options if the request was not upheld.
19.17 All information provided to the person or their representatives must be written to suit their communication style, in line with the Accessible Information Standards.
For more information on the review and appeals process, please see appendix 5
Complaints
19.18 If a person is still not satisfied with the panel decision has the right to make a complaint to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and will be provided with information about how to do so.
19.19 Any other concerns or dissatisfaction with council services, a council decision or feels that they have been treated unjustly and this has not been reviewed by panel, have the right to make a complaint to the council in the first instance and subsequently to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and will be provided with information about how to do so.
