Charges for non-residential care services
Case reference FOI2024/00082
Published 8 February 2024
Request
I am requesting the following information under the Freedom of Information Act, relating to social care charges and debt enforcement for users of social care in non-residential care settings:
Clarification: The request applies to all non-residential adult care services for which council adult care clients are charged for usage.
1. How many individuals received non-residential social care services, broken down into the following financial years: 2021/22 and 2022/23?
2. How many people were charged for care and support in non-residential settings, broken down into the following financial years: 2021/22 and 2022/23?
3. How much money in total did the Local Authority receive from social care charging from non-residential care services, broken down into the following financial years: 2021/22 and 2022/23?
4. How many individuals, since 1 April 2021 to date, have had debt management procedures commenced against them for non-payment of non-residential social care charges (i.e. any escalation in debt recovery, e.g. automated reminders, letter before action and referral to debt collection agency)?
5. How many individuals, since 1 April 2021 to date, have been referred to debt collection agencies for non-payment of non-residential social care charges (this should be a subset of the question 4 figure, as question 4 includes these cases as well as lower level actions)?
6. How many individuals have had court proceedings commenced against them relating to non-payment of non-residential social care charges, since 1 April 2021 to date? Please specify how many of these are probate cases.
Response
I am requesting the following information under the Freedom of Information Act, relating to social care charges and debt enforcement for users of social care in non-residential care settings:
Clarification: The request applies to all non-residential adult care services for which council adult care clients are charged for usage.
1. How many individuals received non-residential social care services, broken down into the following financial years: 2021/22 and 2022/23?
2021/22 2,929
2022/23 2,620
2. How many people were charged for care and support in non-residential settings, broken down into the following financial years: 2021/22 and 2022/23?
2021/22 1,535
2022/23 1,345
3. How much money in total did the Local Authority receive from social care charging from non-residential care services, broken down into the following financial years: 2021/22 and 2022/23?
2021/22 £4,811,335
2022/23 £3,891,155
4. How many individuals, since 1 April 2021 to date, have had debt management procedures commenced against them for non-payment of non-residential social care charges (i.e. any escalation in debt recovery, e.g. automated reminders, letter before action and referral to debt collection agency)?
The figures below are based on those customers who received a reminder within those financial years (a customer will be considered within the debt recovery process as soon as they have received a first reminder).
2021/22 551
2022/23 432
2023 to date 501
5. How many individuals, since 1 April 2021 to date, have been referred to debt collection agencies for non-payment of non-residential social care charges (this should be a subset of the question 4 figure, as question 4 includes these cases as well as lower level actions)?
None.
6. How many individuals have had court proceedings commenced against them relating to non-payment of non-residential social care charges, since 1 April 2021 to date? Please specify how many of these are probate cases.
None.
Documents
This is Herefordshire Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
You can browse our other responses or make a new FOI request.