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Scrap Care Charges
Disability Related Expenditure Guide
Paying care charges? You may be able to reduce them through Disability-Related Expenditure (DRE).
Disability-Related Expenditure (DRE) means the extra costs that Disabled people, older people, or people with long-term health conditions have because of their disability or health condition.
These costs can vary widely and may include things like heating, specialist food, transport, internet access, clothing, or help with everyday tasks such as cleaning or gardening. What matters is that the cost arises because of your disability, not whether it appears on a fixed list.
Local authorities must take these costs into account as part of a financial assessment before deciding how much you should pay towards your care. This is to make sure you are left with enough income to meet your disability-related needs and maintain your wellbeing, independence and ability to take part in everyday life.
This guide gives examples, model wording, and practical tips to help you identify your own DRE and explain it clearly to your council. Some of the examples may fit your situation closely. Others are there to help you think about similar costs in your own life.
👉 You can start in whichever way feels easiest:
Option 1: Use the DRE Calculator
Use our DRE calculator to help identify your disability-related costs. It can be a quick way to get started. You may still find it helpful to read the rest of this page for examples, explanations and ideas.
Option 2: Use the template letter
If you would rather do it yourself, you can copy and use the template letter below. Add your own disability-related costs using the examples and model answers further down this page.
A simple way to think about dre
Ask yourself these questions:
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Is this cost related to my disability or health condition?
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Is it a reasonable cost in my circumstances?
If the answer is yes, it may be something the council should consider as Disability-Related Expenditure. This guide cannot list every possible item, and councils should not treat DRE as limited to a fixed checklist.
Reassurance
You are not asking for special treatment. You are asking the council to properly take account of the extra costs you face because of disability.
The examples in this guide are here to help you make your case clearly. There may also be costs that are unique to you. If the council refuses an item, you can ask for clear written reasons.
What does the Care and Support Statutory Guidance say about DRE?
The Care and Support statutory guidance (Annex C) sets out clear rules on how councils must assess Disability-Related Expenditure (DRE). These rules are not optional — councils are expected to follow them.
The statutory guidance makes clear that:
Para 39: Where disability-related benefits are taken into account, the local authority should make an assessment and allow the person to keep enough benefit to pay for necessary disability-related expenditure to meet any needs which are not being met by the local authority.
Para 40: In assessing disability-related expenditure, local authorities should include the following. However, it should also be noted that this list is not intended to be exhaustive and any reasonable additional costs directly related to a person’s disability should be included:
Para 41: The care plan may be a good starting point for considering what is necessary disability-related expenditure. However, flexibility is needed. What is disability-related expenditure should not be limited to what is necessary for care and support. For example, above average heating costs should be considered.
This means the council must consider your individual situation. It must not rely on a fixed list and should include any reasonable costs that arise because of your disability.
You may also have disability-related costs that are not listed here. This does not mean they cannot be claimed. See below for a more detailed list of additional items you may wish to consider, along with tips and model answers to help you write a letter to reduce your social care charges.
The statutory guidance includes the following examples:
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(a) payment for any community alarm system
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(b) costs of any privately arranged care services required, including respite care
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(c) costs of any specialist items needed to meet the person’s disability needs, for example:
(i) Day or night care which is not being arranged by the local authority
(ii) specialist washing powders or laundry
(iii) additional costs of special dietary needs due to illness or disability (the person may be asked for permission to approach their GP in cases of doubt)
(iv) special clothing or footwear, for example, where this needs to be specially made; or additional wear and tear to clothing and footwear caused by disability
(v) additional costs of bedding, for example, because of incontinence
(vi) any heating costs, or metered costs of water, above the average levels for the area and housing type
(vii) occasioned by age, medical condition or disability
(viii) reasonable costs of basic garden maintenance, cleaning, or domestic help, if necessitated by the individual’s disability and not met by social services
(ix) purchase, maintenance, and repair of disability-related equipment, including equipment or transport needed to enter or remain in work; this may include IT costs, where necessitated by the disability; reasonable hire costs of equipment may be included, if due to waiting for supply of equipment from the local council
(x) personal assistance costs, including any household or other necessary costs arising for the person
(xi) internet access for example for blind and partially sighted people
(xii) other transport costs necessitated by illness or disability, including costs of transport to day centres, over and above the mobility component of DLA or PIP, if in payment and available for these costs. In some cases, it may be reasonable for a council not to take account of claimed transport costs – if, for example, a suitable, cheaper form of transport, for example, council-provided transport to day centres is available, but has not been used
(xiii) in other cases, it may be reasonable for a council not to allow for items where a reasonable alternative is available at lesser cost. For example, a council might adopt a policy not to allow for the private purchase cost of continence pads, where these are available from the NHS
Providing evidence to support your claim
Start keeping evidence now
It is much better to start keeping and storing evidence from now on. Keep receipts, statements and other proof somewhere safe, such as a box, folder or drawer, so you have it ready if the council asks for it later.
We know this is a pain, but it can make the process much easier.
Do not wait until you have everything
You can still make a DRE claim even if you do not yet have every receipt or document.
Send in what you have. It is usually better to submit your letter rather than wait. The council is likely to take some time to reply, and that gives you time to gather further evidence if they ask for it later.
Councils often ask for evidence
From our experience, councils are becoming stricter about evidence. Because this is public money, councils do have the right to ask for evidence of disability-related spending.
That said, they still have to act reasonably. They should not automatically demand every receipt for every item without thinking about your circumstances. A blanket approach can be unfair and may amount to maladministration.
What can count as evidence?
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Receipts – for equipment, clothing, continence products, travel, activities, toiletries, subscriptions or services
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Amazon receipts
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Bank statements – showing regular costs such as fuel, heating, broadband, mobile phone or online spending. You can blank out anything not relevant
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Credit card statements – you can blank out anything not relevant if you want to
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Care plans – showing your needs, risks, support and outcomes
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Assessments or professional letters – for example from an occupational therapist, GP or other professional involved in your care
Councils must be reasonable
Councils can ask for evidence, but they should not make the process so demanding that it becomes a barrier in itself. They should look at each case on its own facts and consider what evidence it is reasonable to expect.
If you have dementia, a learning disability, memory difficulties, or another impairment that makes collecting and organising receipts harder, the council should take that into account and make reasonable adjustments.
If the council never explained to you in the past that you needed to keep receipts or evidence, it may be unreasonable for them to expect you to now provide full historical proof. In that situation, you can explain that the council did not meet its Care Act duties around providing clear information and advice about DRE and evidence requirements. This will depend on your individual circumstances and whether they explained to you the importance of keeping evidence
Claiming older costs
If you are claiming older costs, you may still have a strong case, especially if the council never told you about DRE in the first place. Councils have Care Act duties to provide information and advice, and they should have explained DRE, how to claim it, and the importance of keeping evidence. If they failed to do this, it may be unreasonable for them to expect you to have kept full evidence going back a long time.
The main thing is to explain the item clearly and provide whatever evidence you do have.
DRE Letter to send to your council
If you prefer not to use our DRE chatbot, you can use the template letter below. Simply copy and paste the template letter below, then add the DRE items you want the council to consider.
Dear [name of team]
Re: A review of my financial assessment for non-residential social care charges
I am writing to request a review of my financial assessment. In particular, I am asking you to review and consider my individual Disability Related Expenditure (DRE). I was not told that I needed to make a specific application to have my DRE disregarded when my care plan was developed. (Delete this sentence if your council has informed you about DRE and how to claim)
Para 8.2 of the Care and Support Statutory Guidance issued by the Department of Health and Social Care (which you are required to act under by the Care Act itself) makes it clear that councils should factor into their discretionary charging policies the principle that service users should only be charged what they can reasonably afford to pay. The Guidance further clarifies that I should be left with a minimum income guarantee, not just for daily living costs, to ensure I have sufficient funds to meet basic needs, such as purchasing food, paying utility bills, or obtaining insurance, but also to promote independence and social inclusion.
The Care and Support Guidance also states, in para 8.42, that where a person receives benefits to meet their disability needs, the charging arrangements should ensure they retain enough money to meet these disability-related costs. I believe the way my assessment was carried out and the calculations do not ensure I keep enough money to meet my disability-related expenses. Therefore, I am asking you to consider the DRE I identified below
I would like you to recalculate my contribution, taking into account my DRE listed below. Please write detailed reasons for meeting the duties of rationality, fairness, and transparency owed in public law if you do not consider the items above worthy of a DRE disregard. I’ve incurred some of the expenses for a while. Therefore, I am also asking you to consider backdating your recalculation to the original financial assessment, as this is when the council should have included the DRE items.
The Disability-Related Expenditure I would like you to consider is set out below:
[Insert your DRE items here]
Regards,
[Insert Name]