Financial assessment

If you are not satisfied with your care charge

Your charge is based on the information you provided during your financial assessment. This takes into account your income, savings and capital. It means that you should be able to pay your charge.

If you think you have been charged too much

We can look at your assessment again to check that we have taken account of the correct income and costs.

We may refer you to your social worker to see if you have any disability related expenses that we need to consider.

You can contact the Financial Assessment team to tell us why you think the charge is wrong.

If you cannot afford to pay your care charge

If you have difficulty paying your charge, you can contact our Income Collection Team for advice.

In some cases we may ask for evidence of your income and expenditure to show financial hardship. We will consider your case carefully and provide a written response within 10 working days of receiving all evidence.

Contact the Income Collection Team

Please tell us your customer account number when you contact us.

Email: income.collection@essex.gov.uk Telephone: 03330 135 860 - choose option 1 Textphone: 0845 758 5592

Office hours: Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 4:30pm

Postal address: Income Collection Service, Essex County Council, PO Box 4, County Hall, Chelmsford, CM1 1LX

Getting financial advice

We can provide information about services and our assessment and charging processes. However we cannot give you financial advice. We recommend that you take independent financial advice when making care decisions.

Managing money and debt

There are lots of organisations that offer free debt and money advice.

If you have asked us to look into this, but you're still not satisfied

If you are still not satisfied with our response, you can complete a complaint form online.