What are top-up fees?
The local authority has to give you services that meet your needs, no matter how much it costs. However, you and your family have the option to pay a bit more for your residential accommodation if you want somewhere more expensive - called top-up fees. However, the local authority can’t put you somewhere and expect you to pay extra costs if you do not need it.
You and your family have the option to pay a bit more for your residential accommodation if you want somewhere more expensive - called top-up fees.
Top-up fees would be the difference between your personal budget and the cost of the care home you want to go to, so this might mean your personal budget is £200 a week but you want to go to a care home that costs £300 a week. You could pay £100 a week in top-up fees to make up the difference.
If you are doing this, you have to sign a contract with the local authority. This contract will make sure you can afford the cost of top-up fees and this contract will also decide how often you pay your top-up payments and who they are paid to. There are some restrictions on what income may be considered eligible to be used to ‘top up’ the fees payable.
If you do not make your top-up payments, you may have to move to a different place that is within your personal budget and additionally, your local authority will review the agreement from time to time. This will make sure they know of any increases in charges and how they will divide this.
