Disability Related Expenses (DREs)
When your care needs are assessed, you should tell the Social Worker about anything you pay for which you think might be a DRE so they can be considered.
The Social Worker will let us know if any DRE's should be taken into account in your financial assessment, if so, we will ask you to provide proof of the DRE. DREs usually fall into the following three categories:
- Specialised items and services: you may use things that are made specially to help with your disability, such as wheelchairs and care support. These items may have additional costs, like repair and insurance.
- Increased use of non-specialised items and services: you may have to use things more because of your disability, such as heating.
- Increased use of non-specialised items and services: you may have to use things that cost more than the average, such as home delivery.
Information on receipts
Receipts must show the name and address of the person or company providing the services or equipment to you.
Protecting public funds
As part of our duty to protect public funds and to prevent fraud, checks are carried out with other government agencies to ensure the person or company providing you with a service has fully declared the money you pay them. We may need to contact the person or company providing their services to you to check this.
Cash-in hand payments
The Council is a public body and we must ensure we do not condone undeclared income. All payments must be declared for income tax purposes by the person you pay before we can consider them.
Consideration of payment to a family member for support
The law does not allow for payments to family members to be considered as a disability related expense.
Consideration of the full amount of money to pay
If the amount you pay out for disability-related expenses is considered excessive and the goods or services can be purchased for a lower price, the lower price will be considered rather than the amount you actually spend, even if you have already spent the money.
You can find more information on DREs and our Charging Policy on our Adult Social Care Charging Policy.