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 help them deliver social care support well.
These SDS Standards are not laws, but they describe what good Self-directed Support looks like. Councils should work towards these Standards.
When it comes to spending a support budget, here is what the Standards say:
- You should be informed and involved in decisions about how your budget is agreed, allocated, reviewed and spent (12.1).
- You should be told the relevant amount available to achieve your personal outcomes for each Self-directed Support option (12.2).
- Your budget can be spent in any way that is legal and that is related to meeting your agreed personal outcomes (the things that are important to you) (12.3)
- You can be flexible about how you spend your budget to meet your agreed personal outcomes (the things that are important to you) (12.4)
- Social workers should encourage and support you to think creatively and flexibly in how your budget can be spent (12.4)
- You should be able to be flexible about spending different amounts of money each week and at different times of the year, within agreed limits. (12.4)
- Council systems should support flexible spending (12.4)
- Councils should balance their duty to meet your outcomes and give flexibility of spend with their duty to ensure budgets are spent appropriately (12.5)
- There should be a clear and fair reason behind any proposed change to your budget and this should be clearly communicated to you through your social worker (12.5)
- The council should not take money back from your budget without consulting you, potentially through a review or reassessment. This should take account of bills yet to be paid, or challenges recruiting personal assistants or getting care and support services in place (12.5).
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.