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Adult Social Care Charges - Debt Recovery and Management Policy

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Consultation has concluded

Have your say on improving Barnet’s approach to managing adult social care debt that arises due to non-payments of care contributions, by helping to introduce an effective adult social care debt management policy.

Barnet, like other councils, charges customers for a range of adult social care services in accordance with statutory requirements and local charging policies.

We are consulting on a new debt management policy for adult social care in the borough. The financial assessment determines the person’s ability to pay; that is whether they will be required to pay all of, part of, or nothing towards the cost of

Have your say on improving Barnet’s approach to managing adult social care debt that arises due to non-payments of care contributions, by helping to introduce an effective adult social care debt management policy.

Barnet, like other councils, charges customers for a range of adult social care services in accordance with statutory requirements and local charging policies.

We are consulting on a new debt management policy for adult social care in the borough. The financial assessment determines the person’s ability to pay; that is whether they will be required to pay all of, part of, or nothing towards the cost of care and support.

Whilst the majority of the income due is paid on time, the council has a duty to ensure that all revenue owed to the council is collected promptly and effectively as the council has a duty of care to all taxpayers.

We are committed in providing good quality care to all our service users, even when circumstances mean they are unable to contribute to their care costs, and we would never withdraw care from those who need it. However, because the money the council spends on social care comes from the taxpayer, we have a duty to ensure that funds are used appropriately and for the intended purpose. We also have a duty to our vulnerable clients to ensure that our debt recovery methods to not cause them any undue distress.


What we are proposing

We are proposing to introduce an overarching Debt Management and Recovery Policy to balance our above duties and ensure that our approach to debt recovery is proportionate, transparent, and consistent.


Your views are important to us

We want to hear your views on our proposals. In particular, we want to hear from service users, council staff, voluntary sector partners, and care providers.


How to have your say:

We have written to all our service users, other key stakeholders and partners, inviting them to take part in this consultation. If you have received a letter or an email we encourage you to take part in this important consultation. We are also keen to hear the views of the wider community on our proposals and encourage you to have your say.

You can give your views in various ways:

Complete our online questionnaire

If you would like to request a paper questionnaire or another format, please:

  • email Idil.Farah@Barnet.gov.uk or telephone 020 8359 4779
  • write to us at: Adult Social Care Debt consultation, Adults and Health, London Borough of Barnet, 2 Bristol Avenue, Colindale, London, NW9 4EW.

If you would like someone to help you complete the questionnaire or need more information, please contact us using one of the above methods.


What happens after the consultation closes?

The council will use the consultation findings to inform our final decision. We will publish the results of the consultation, our decision and how we are acting on the results of the consultation on this web page in March 2023.



Consultation has concluded

  • We asked, you said, we did

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    We asked

    We asked for your views on Barnet’s approach to managing adult social care debt that arises due to non-payments of care contributions. Like other councils, Barnet charges customers for a range of adult social care services in accordance with statutory requirements and local charging policies.

    We asked for views on an overarching debt management policy for adult social care in the borough, to ensure a consistent, transparent and fair approach to recovery of monies owed to the council.


    You said

    We received a total of 104 questionnaires, 89 were online and the remaining 15 were written responses. The responses included:

    • the majority of respondents were in favour of the key principles set out in the policy, though many respondents asked that we make every effort to help prevent debt by engaging early and giving opportunity to pay, before the council started any legal proceedings
    • the majority agreed that Direct Debit was the best way to avoid debt
    • one-third of respondents strongly agreed that nominated persons’ failure to make regular payments should be chased by the council
    • about a quarter strongly agreed that the council should ask for Power of Attorney documentation before allowing a nominated person to manage someone’s financial affairs.

    You can read the full consultation report here.


    We did

    All the feedback from the consultation was given due consideration. The final policy has been approved and published on the council’s website along with other Adult Social Care policies. Officers have proceeded with appropriate debt management and recovery actions following the Adult Social Care Debt Recovery and Management Policy.