A guide to filling out the Online Financial Assessment Form

Our online form, (OFA) will tell you how much you are likely to have to contribute towards your care and support. It also allows you to submit your details securely to us. The guidance below should help you fill out the form, but if you need any assistance or further guidance, you can contact our Financial Assessment Team, who will be happy to assist. You can call them on 01865 323642 or email the team at: financialassessments@oxfordshire.gov.uk.

Visual Guide

Whilst you are encouraged to read all the information below before starting your form, here is a quick Visual Guide (pdf format, 1 MB) to the form and process.

Completing the assessment

You may be expected to contribute towards the cost of the care you receive. Most people have to pay something towards the cost of their care. Therefore you will be expected to provide your details so that we can complete a financial assessment. Our Online Financial Assessment calculator allows you or your representative to supply your financial details online which will allow us to complete the financial assessment much quicker than a paper form. The online calculator can also be used to give you an indication of what you may need to pay if you choose to have care in the future.

You will need to have various information and documents to hand to complete the form. Before you start, gather the following:

• recent bank statements
• your National Insurance number
• evidence of any pensions you receive
• evidence of any benefits you receive
• details about any earnings
• details of any savings, investments, or other capital
• details of essential expenditures, such as council tax, rent, mortgage
• trust documentation for property ownership (if relevant)

You may need to supply supporting documents to show the income and expenses you record, such as bank statements. We need this information to confirm the exact amount you need to pay. Please read through the Evidence Required section to determine what evidence you will be required to upload at the end of your form. At the end of the form, you can add scanned photos or upload documents as evidence of the details you have entered.

If you are filling in this form on behalf of someone and you have Power of Attorney, Deputy or Appointee status, please add scanned photos or documents as evidence of this at the end of the form.

Once you submit your form, a Financial Assessment Officer will review the details and confirm in writing the final outcome of your financial assessment.

You may also find it useful to read through our Policy for Contributions in Adult Social Care (pdf format, 269Kb).

When you begin the form, you will be asked to choose the type of assessment you want to complete:

Select non-residential services if:

You are/may receive care while living at home, including a direct payment, carers visiting you at your home, community support services, alert services, supported living, respite, short stays in a care home and daycare services.

Select residential services if:

You are/may be going into a residential home or nursing home on a permanent basis

You will need to fill in the following sections:

1. Savings and assets

Please supply details of any savings and assets you have. This might include building society accounts, stocks and shares, unit trusts, or property other than your home. Please use the Comment field on the form to add more details, such as details of a savings account. In the comments section, include the date of the latest balance as well as the name of the institution in the comment box, e.g., Nationwide Building Society. Include the last four digits of the account number e.g., ****1234.

If you are completing a non-residential assessment and have an additional property, that is not your main home, please indicate this in the Savings and Assets section - select ‘Property Owned (other than main home)’. You are required to add in the comments box details such as the address, mortgage and ownership.

If you are completing a residential assessment and have a property that you own, there will be an additional section that you need to fill in.

If the property you own has been put into a trust for your child(ren), we would need information on the trust and may consider it as deprivation of assets depending on when/why the trust was set up.

2. Benefits

Select a category, and a list of benefits to choose from will appear. If you are unsure which category your benefit appears under, you can tick yes and review the list. You can also find this information in the Evidence Required section. Benefits can be paid weekly, two-weekly or four-weekly. Some benefits are also paid monthly. Therefore, make sure you select the correct frequency within the form.

Some benefits are made up of various elements, and we may not need to include the full amount in our calculation. Therefore, we would need to see your award letter which would include a breakdown of your entitlement. You may find the outcome given by the OFA differs from the final outcome confirmed to you in writing.

Pension savings credit – for non-residential assessments, Pension savings credit is not included in the calculation. However, the OFA will include it in your initial calculation, a financial assessment officer will make the necessary adjustments once we receive your form and will write to you to confirm the final outcome.

Universal Credit – there can be several elements to your Universal Credit payment, and we do not necessarily include all of these elements in our calculation. Whilst we have asked you to include the full amount on the OFA form, we would need to see your award letter which would include a breakdown of your entitlement so that a financial assessment officer can make the necessary deductions and disregards. This means, you may find the outcome given by the OFA differs from the final outcome confirmed to you in writing.

3. Pensions

In this section we need details of your state pension and any occupational pensions. Sometimes your state pension payment can include another benefit, for example Attendance Allowance. If you do receive a combined payment, we would need to see the award letter with the breakdown. Occupational pension is often paid monthly, please select the correct frequency within the form. We would need evidence of War Disablement Pensions and War Widows pension as they are made up of various elements and we may not need to include the full amount in our calculation. Therefore, we would need to see the award letter which would include a breakdown of your entitlement.

4. Other income

Other income can include rental income, maintenance payments, spousal support. We would need evidence of these payments such as bank statements, rental agreements etc. For Trust Fund income we would need to see trust documentation. If it is a discretionary trust, it will not be in the included in the assessment, therefore we need evidence of this fact.

5. Essential expenditure

We require evidence of these expenses. Please refer to the Evidence Required section

Creating an account

If you are having or are about to have care and support arranged by Oxfordshire County Council, you will need to create an account before filling in the form.

If you just want to get an indication of what your contribution to any care and support services might be, and you do not want to submit your financial details to Oxfordshire County Council, you can fill in the form without creating an account.

How to create an account video transcript

• Step 1: In the top right-hand corner of the page is a link that says Sign Up/Login. Click on this link. You will be redirected to another page. 
• Step 2: Click the sign-up now link below on this page. 
• Step 3: Type your email address in the field. Then click on the ‘send verification code’ button.
• Step 4: You will be emailed a code. Enter this code in the box and click the ‘verify code’ button.
• Step 5: Create your password; type a password in. Then, enter your forename and surname in the boxes.
• Step 6: Click on the Create button.

Saving the form

Whilst you are encouraged to have all your information and relevant documents to hand, we understand that you may need to save your progress and come back later to complete the form. Click on the button for instructions on how to do this

 How to save your form video transcript

• Step 1: Log into the OFA by clicking on the link in the top right corner of the page.
• Step 2: Once you have completed section 1 of the form, you will start to complete section 2, which contains your financial details.
• Step 3: At the end of each subsection, scroll to the bottom of the page, and there is a ‘save for later’ button. If you need to stop at any point during section 2, scroll down and click on this button.
• Step 4: You will be redirected to a consent page. Tick "yes" to give consent.
• Step 5: Then you need to enter a name for your form and click on the save button.
• Step 6: When you want to return to your form, sign in by clicking on the link in the top right corner of the page. 
• Step 7 Click the ‘calculate my contribution’ button on the first page. 
• Step 8 Then, if you scroll to the bottom of the page, you will see a section called Open saved calculations. 
• Step 9 Click on this link to find your saved form here.
   

Evidence required

The tables below will explain what evidence you need to send in to support your assessment. You will be able to upload evidence at the end of the form, provided you have it saved on your machine.

You may find it useful to download the evidence checklist (docx format, 57Kb) and upload it along with your evidence:

Disability-related expenditure

If you are in receipt of a disability-related benefit your assessment will automatically include an initial allowance for Disability-related expenditure. If you believe this amount is not sufficient to cover your disability-related expenses, please contact the Financial Assessment team to discuss your financial assessment. You call them on 01865 323642

How to upload evidence video transcript 

• Step 1: You will have completed the first three sections of the OFA.
• Step 2: You need to enter your national insurance number.
• Step 3: At the bottom of the page is the section where you can upload evidence and documentation that supports your financial details. 
  • Ensure your evidence is saved to your device. 
  • Click on the choose a file link or drag and drop files from their saved location. If you upload something in error, there is a delete button.
• Step 4: Once you have successfully uploaded your evidence, click the continue button at the bottom of the page.

Non-residential Financial Assessment

Video transcript

• Step 1: If you are receiving a non-residential service from Oxfordshire County Council, select this option on the first section of the OFA.
• Step 2: Enter your date of birth, then click continue. 
  • Then tick Yes or No to indicate whether you have capital over or under the limit stated.
• Step 3: Next, you will have five sub-sections to complete within section 2. 
  • Go through each section and indicate your items by entering an amount in the amount box. 
  • Where applicable, indicate the payment frequency using the dropdown and add comments where necessary.
• Step 4: Once you have completed section 2, you will be given an estimated contribution amount and a calculation summary. 
  • At this point, you can review and amend these details or submit them to us. 
  • At the bottom of the page is a button to submit your details. You can also download the information by clicking on the download button.
• Step 5: Next, enter your national insurance number and upload any supporting evidence. 
  • Then click continue at the bottom of the page, and you will be asked to enter your details such as name, address and contact details.
• Step 6: Finally, click the submit button, and you should be directed to a Thank You page confirming your form has been submitted.

Residential-Financial-Assessment

Video transcript 

• Step 1: If you are receiving a residential service from Oxfordshire County Council, i.e. you are in a care home, select this option on the first section of the OFA.
• Step 2: Enter your date of birth, then click continue. 
  • Then tick Yes or No to indicate whether you have capital over or under the limit stated. 
  • You will then need to indicate whether you have a property. If so, you will need to enter the approximate value of your property, whether there is any outstanding mortgage on the property and the property's ownership.
• Step 3: You will have five sub-sections to complete within section 2. 
  • Go through each section and indicate your items by entering an amount in the amount box. 
  • Where applicable, indicate the payment frequency using the dropdown and add comments where necessary.
• Step 4: Once you have completed section 2, you will be given an estimated contribution amount and a calculation summary. 
  • You can review and amend these details or submit your details to us. 
  • At the bottom of the page is a button to submit your details. You can also download the information by clicking on the download button.
• Step 5: Next, you need to enter your national insurance number and upload any supporting evidence. 
  • Click continue at the bottom of the page, and you will be asked to enter your personal details such as name, address and contact details.
• Step 6: Finally, click the submit button, and you should be directed to a Thank You page confirming your form has been submitted.

More help and advice

If you need further assistance on how to fill in the form or if you want to check what evidence you need to send in, contact Oxfordshire County Council's Financial Assessment Team.

Finding someone to speak for you – visit our page on Advocacy and making decisions.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to provide my financial information?

You do not have to tell us about your finances. However, if you don't, we'll assume that you are prepared to pay the full cost of your care you receive. If you would prefer to arrange your care privately, please contact Adult Social Care so our involvement can be closed. If you do provide your financial information, we can work out how much Oxfordshire County Council will pay towards your care and how much you will need to contribute towards your care costs.

Do I need to complete the whole form?

Unless you are choosing not to disclose your financial circumstances or you have capital over the upper capital limit of £23,250.00, yes you will need to go through each section of the form. You can skip sections that are not relevant to you. If you are over the upper capital limit and do not want to supply any additional information other than that, you can just answer Yes to this question in the form and skip the remaining sections and then submit your form.

How soon will I hear back?

If you choose to submit your details and have supplied all supporting documents, we will review your information and get in touch within 10 working days.

What is the Upper Capital limit?

The upper Capital limit is £23,250.00. Savings, investments, property all count towards this threshold amount. If you are over this limit, you will be a full cost payer.

What are the arrangement and management fees?

If you are liable for the full cost of your care, we will charge you an arrangement fee for the cost of arranging your care. This fee is a one-off charge. If we also manage the care package for you, we will also charge a weekly fee in addition to your care charges. Please note that arrangement fees only apply to care and support provided within your home.

I’m struggling to complete the form on my own – can someone help me?

You may want to ask a friend or family member to help you or someone who already helps you manage your finances. If you don’t have anyone to help you fill out this form, we can arrange for someone to speak with you over the phone at a time that is convenient for you, if this is not possible, we can arrange to come and visit you in your home. Please call the Financial Assessment Team on 01865 897530.

How do I pay for care once my contribution is calculated?

We will invoice you for your care charges monthly in arrears. Please note it may be a few weeks before you receive your first invoice. The full range of payment methods will be printed on the back of the invoice. The preferred method of payment is by Direct Debit. Please telephone the Income Team on 01865 816470 to set one up.

There’s been a change in my financial circumstance – what do I need to do?

It’s always best to let us know of any changes to your financial circumstances, or if the assessment breakdown figures are incorrect or missing information, no matter how small as it avoids backdated invoices. Please call the Financial Assessment Team on 01865 897530. We will review your financial assessment at least annually to consider any changes that will have occurred during the year also.

I believe I will be a full cost payer and I’d prefer to arrange my own care – what do I do?

If you wish to arrange your own care, you may be able to secure lower rates by negotiating directly with independent agencies in your area. You can obtain a list of Independent Care Providers by telephoning Oxfordshire County Council’s Social and Healthcare Team on 0345 050 7666.

What evidence do I need to supply with my details?

Please review the Evidence Required section on this page. There is also a checklist that you can download. If you are still unsure, you can call the Financial Assessment Team on 01865 897530 and discuss this before you submit your form. We cannot complete your financial assessment if we do not have the relevant evidence.

What if I want to appeal against my assessment outcome?

If you wish to appeal against the assessment, we recommend that you contact your Adult Social Care Team to discuss this.  In the meantime, you should make payments as assessed whilst we consider your appeal to help avoid any debt increasing on your account. If your appeal is successful, we will arrange a refund as appropriate.

How do I request my letter in large print when I am submitting my form?

You may add this request in any of the Comments boxes you use. There is also an optional Reference Number field, at the point of submitting your form – you can use this space. Or you can email the team with your request: financialassessments@oxfordshire.gov.uk