| 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 local authority should consider the needs of the person at home in
setting the personal allowance.
• local authorities are required to ignore half of a
resident’s occupational pension where the resident is paying half of that pension to
a spouse (see 8024A). This disregard does not apply to unmarried couples. Where the person
in residential accommodation is the main recipient of an unmarried couples’
overall income (eg occupational pension), the LA 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 partner remaining at home. In considering this
the LA should bear in mind the effects it could have on benefits such as Income Support,
Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit of increasing the partner’s income, as
increasing the partner’s income in this way may lead to a reduction in benefits
resulting in the partner being no better off.
the 50 per cent disregard mentioned above only relates to
occupational pensions. Where a resident’s income includes a private pension, or a
retirement annuity contract, the local authority may consider using their discretion to
increase the resident’s PEA to enable the resident to pass some of that income to the
spouse or partner remaining at home. |
