Circular SWSG5/94 5455 - Community Care: National Assistance (Assessment of Resources) (Amendment No.2) Regulations 1993: Regulations and Guidance

SECTION 5 - PERSONAL EXPENSES ALLOWANCE

Purpose of the personal expenses allowance

5.001 The personal allowance is intended to enable residents to have money to spend as they wish, for example on stationery, personal toiletries, small presents for friends and relatives and other minor items. The residents will normally supply their own clothes but in cases of special need or emergency (eg all clothes are lost in a fire) the local authority may provide replacement clothing.

Amount of personal expenses allowance

5.002 In assessing a resident’s ability to pay for his accommodation, the local authority is required to ensure that he retains an amount for personal expenses.

Section 22(4)

5.003 The amount allowed in the assessment for personal expenses is laid down each year in the National Assistance (Sums for Personal Expenses) Regulations (see Annex A) and is the same for each resident whether they are in a local authority run home or an independent sector home.

Varying the amount of personal expenses allowance

5.005 Under the Section 22(4) of the National Assistance Act of 1948 local authorities have the power to allow a different amount from that prescribed for personal expenses in special circumstances, for example where:

• someone who does not qualify as a "less dependent" resident solely because he lives in registered private or voluntary sector accommodation or in local authority accommodation where board is provided and therefore cannot be assessed under the rules described in Section 2 but who, nonetheless, needs to retain more of his income in order to help him lead a more independent life.

• where a person in residential accommodation has a dependant child (see paragraph 1.012), the local authority should consider the needs of the child in setting the personal expenses allowance. This applies whether or not the child has accompanied the person into the accommodation, and will be particularly important where the resident has income which is taken fully into account (see Sections 8 and 9) in the charging assessment (eg Income Support, Child Benefit and Child Support Maintenance Payments where the child is accommodated with the resident under Part III of the National Assistance Act 1948).

• where a person temporarily in residential accommodation receives Income Support including an amount for a partner who remains at home (see 4.006) the LA should consider the needs of the person at home in setting the personal allowance.

• where the person in residential accommodation is the main recipient of the couples’ overall income (eg occupational pension), the local authority can use their discretion to increase the resident’s personal expenses allowance in special circumstances to enable the resident to pass some of that income to the spouse remaining at home. In considering this the local authority should bear in mind the effects it could have on benefits such as Income Support, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit of increasing the spouse’s income (ie increasingly the income in this way may lead to a reduction in benefits resulting in the spouse being no better off).