Written question WQ95854
- Asked by
- Jane DoddsLib Dem
- To be answered by
- Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
- Tabled
- Due
- Answered
- Time to answer
- 8 days
Question
What steps is the Welsh Government taking to ensure that younger adults in residential care have sufficient disposable income to meet their daily living needs, such as social activities, clothing, and transport costs?
Answer
Answered by Minister for Children and Social Care
Within the Social Care and Wellbeing (Wales) Act 2014, the regulations, and the relevant codes of practice, if a person’s capital is at or below the capital limit they are not required to contribute to any costs of their residential care and support.
Additionally, local authorities must leave the person with a specified amount of their own income so that the person has money to spend on personal items such as clothes and other items that are not part of their care and support. This is known as the minimum income amount (MIA). The Charging Regulations set the level of the MIA which authorities must allow residents to retain; this is currently £43.90 per week.
The purpose of the MIA is to ensure that a person has a certain amount of money left after contributing to the costs of their care and support to spend as they wish. It is not meant to be used to cover any aspect of their care and support that has been provided or arranged by the local authority, or is to be provided through direct payments, to meet a person’s eligible needs.
In addition to the MIA, earnings as an employed or self-employed earner, as defined in regulation 14 (Earnings to be disregarded) of the Regulations, as well as any income from the following welfare benefits and sources must be fully disregarded where income is taken into account:
(a) Direct Payments;
(b) The mobility component of Disability Living Allowance;
(c) The mobility component of Personal Independence Payments.