What happens if you do not spend all your support budget?
Once you have had an assessment and completed a support plan, you will be allocated a support budget.
Sometimes, people are not able to spend all their budget. This is often called an underspend.
This can happen for a variety of reasons, including the lack of availability of support services.
What options do I have if I have not been able to spend all my budget?
If you are not able to spend all your budget on what has been agreed in your support plan, you should be able to use it in other ways to meet your outcomes.
Your outcomes are the things you have agreed with your social worker that are important to you.
People sometimes find it difficult to get their social worker or council to agree to using their budget for something different.
You might find it helpful to speak to a local Independent Support Organisation or Advocacy Service for help and advice.
Find your local Independent Support Organisation using the Find Help search tool.
Find your local Advocacy Service here.
In this video, Danielle talks about how she was not able to spend all of her budget, so agreed with her social worker it could be used to purchase Amazon Alexa technology to enable her to live independently:
What happens if I still have not been able to spend it?
Even if you have discussed what else you could spend your budget on, you might be in a situation where you have still not been able to spend it all.
If this happens, your council may ask for some of the money back. This is sometimes called a clawback.
If you have a Direct Payment (your council gives you cash and you manage this yourself), you will be asked to pay the money back to your council.
If your council holds your budget and manages it for you, they may take money back from it.
Your council should still let you know if they have not been able to spend all your budget and try to see if there is something else you can use it for.
If another organisation manages your budget, your council will ask them to pay back any money from your budget that has not been spent.
Your council and the organisation that manages your budget should let you know if you have not been able to spend it all. They should try to see if there is something else you can use it for.
The council should not take money back from you without telling you first.
Next steps
It is a good idea to speak to an Independent Support Organisation or Advocacy Service if you have not been able to spend all your budget.
These types of organisation can help you think about other ways to spend your budget, or help you speak with your council about using your budget flexibly.
Find your local Independent Support Organisation using the Find Help search tool.
Find your local Advocacy Service here.
Some people are able to use money left over in their budget for other types of support.
But we know that other people have difficulties doing this. Here is what do to if this happens to you.
My council says I can not spend my budget underspend on something else
We know that some councils and some social workers have a traditional view of social care support.
This means that they might be reluctant to agree to you using your budget for something else, if you have not been able to spend it all.
It is unlikely your council will agree to you spending your budget on something that will not meet your outcomes (the things you have agreed with your social worker are important to you).
But if there is something else you want to spend your support budget on that was not in your original support plan, but you think will help you achieve your outcomes, you can make a case for it.
Your council might want to do another assessment of your needs before agreeing that you can spend your budget on other things.
You can show your social worker this page to explain that councils should be flexible when it comes to spending support budgets.
It can be helpful to get advice and help from an Independent Support Organisation or Advocacy Service.
Find your local Independent Support Organisation using the Find Help search tool.
Find your local Advocacy Service here.
The SDS Standards give guidance to local councils to tell them what they should do when it comes to arranging social care support (Self-directed Support).
These SDS Standards are not laws, but all councils have signed up to them. Councils should work to these standards.
When it comes to spending a support budget, here is what the Standards say:
- You should be involved in the development of your budget and have maximum flexibility to use this in the way that you choose to achieve agreed outcomes.
- You should be informed and involved in making decisions about what you can and cannot spend a budget on.
- What you spend your budgets on should be fair, proportionate, legal, equitable, auditable and necessary to meeting personal outcomes.
- Flexibility and creativity in how a budget can be spent is encouraged.
- Regular reviews of your support will help make sure that you are achieving your personal outcomes. This process involves reviewing your budget to ensure the amount, and the way it is being used, is enough to meet agreed outcomes.
- Any recoupment (taking money back) from your budget should not be done without speaking to you first, and potentially a review or reassessment of your needs.
You can see all the Standards here.
The SDS Statutory Guidance is legal guidance written for local councils to tell them how social care support (Self-directed Support) should work.
It says that:
- if you are not able to spend all your support budget, your council should clearly communicate this to you
- your council should discuss your budget with you and anyone who supports you
- your council should discuss with you if you can spend your budget in a different way to achieve your outcomes (these are the things you have agreed with your social worker are important to you)
- your council may want to do another assessment of your needs to see if you can spend your budget in a different way.
You can find the part of the Guidance that says this here.