Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance he has issued to local authorities on social care charges for vulnerable people receiving benefits; and if he will make a statement.

To help local authorities design reasonable and fair policies, the Department has issued the Care and Support (Charging and Assessment of Resources) Regulations 2014 and statutory guidance in the Care and Support Statutory (CASS) Guidance. The CASS Guidance is issued under section 78 of the Care Act and local authorities must have regard to it.

The Regulations and Guidance do not require local authorities to charge. They seek to ensure that, where local authorities do charge, this will be based on fairer, well-designed charging policies and ensure in particular that service users on low incomes are protected from charging and that any charges levied on disability benefits are subject to an assessment of disability costs, to ensure their reasonableness.