Cost of living grants and fee uplifts (October 2023)

As winter approaches, the Department for Work and Pensions is due to pay another round of financial support to people in receipt of benefits this year. The payments, which are supposed to help ease the increased cost of living, will arrive between 31 October and 19 November. Many people supported in Shared Lives will receive these payments. They will not need to do anything to claim them, as they are paid automatically.

We have updated our cost-of-living explainer for people supported in Shared Lives  with more information. There is an easy read cost of living explainer here.

Unlike last year, when every household received £400 to help with rising energy costs,  there has been no announcement of further support for bill-payers, other than the general energy price cap. We are aware that this means there is no additional support for most Shared Lives carers, which is why we have pressed our Invaluable campaign for fee uplifts hard and are raising the issues of cost of living with policy makers whenever we can.

In some instances, Shared Lives carers have asked the person they support directly if they would be happy to contribute all or part of the payment to them.

As with the winter fuel payment, Shared Lives Plus would always advise against Shared Lives carers making private financial arrangements with the people they support. To do so would leave them open to an accusation of financial abuse and a potential safeguarding enquiry. As our legal advisor states, “if the carer requests that the money be transferred to them, it could appear that they are taking advantage of the [supported person].”

Where possible, Shared Lives Plus recommends that the Shared Lives scheme secures an increased weekly contribution towards food and utilities from the supported person.

The board and lodgings contribution (also known as food and utilities contribution) should come from a supported individual’s personal benefit money (or private finances if they are self-funding, though this would mean they are unlikely to eligible for the grant). Universal Credit (UC) or Employment Support Allowance (ESA) should be paid directly into the supported persons bank account, a contribution of which is then contributed to the Shared Lives carer at a set weekly rate.

We know that in some, but not all cases, the Shared Lives scheme may have the autonomy to increase the board and lodgings contribution. This will apply to schemes who are not contractually obliged to a pre-determined rate over a set a period. In addition, it may be inappropriate to raise the weekly set rate where the person already receives lower amounts of benefits, for example where the person is under 25 years old.

Several Shared Lives schemes have told us that they have offset some Shared Lives carer concerns about the one-off grant by securing uplifts to their fees for care and support. There is no one way for Shared Lives schemes to achieve this.

Firstly, it is important for Shared Lives schemes to ensure that they are on the “other care providers” list within the local authority/HSC. This means that Shared Lives carers fees will be reviewed whenever there is a general review of care provider fees.

Shared Lives carer fees will then be increased in line with other the providers. We know that it is not always easy for Shared Lives schemes to gain access to the list, but that it can be well worth the effort. Once you are on the list, you should not then need to lobby for increases each year, or every few years.

Secondly, from speaking to Shared Lives schemes, we believe that the most effective way of securing a general uplift for care and support fees is to use evidence from Shared Lives carers themselves of exactly how the cost of living is impacting them. Given their ongoing relationship with Shared Lives carers, Shared Lives Plus has identified that schemes are best placed to gather and utilise this evidence to achieve uplifts for their Shared Lives carers. We recognise that this may not be possible for independent Shared Lives schemes but may be of use to local authority schemes.

There are several ways that Shared Lives schemes can gather evidence to argue for an uplift in fees. We know of one scheme who sent a survey out to Shared Lives carers to establish how much they used to spend on food and utilities, and how much they now spend. Another scheme has created a food and utilities contribution calculator, seen below.

It is important to think about the type of evidence that will best support any argument for an increase.

The “Out in the Cold” report from 2018 identified that over one third of disabled adults said that their impairment or condition has a significant effect on their energy costs. One example is the increased use of electricity for people who need to charge assistive technologies. Demonstrating how supported people require additional electricity along with statistical evidence of how the Shared Lives carer’s electricity bill has increased will strengthen the argument for an uplift in fees.

From our conversations with Shared Lives schemes and Shared Lives carers, we are aware that the cost of living is an ongoing challenge for many. The information and ideas suggested above have emerged from these conversations. We appreciate your collaboration on this, and share many of your frustrations.

We appreciate any information or ideas you have that could benefit other Shared Lives schemes and Shared Lives carers, so please keep us updated on these via the google groups (for scheme members) and email: membership@sharedlivesplus.org.uk