BRADFORD Council is offering a payment holiday to all residents who receive adult social care services in a home or community setting to help support them during this difficult time.

The council also announced it will not be issuing its usual year-end adjustments to annual bills for the past year at this time (up to 29 March 2020).

It was due to send out its anticipated bills for the forthcoming year from March 30, 2020 but now won’t be doing so until the situation in the country is starting to get back to normal.

When the Council is in that position, the annual bills will be calculated on the remaining number of weeks in the financial year and people will start paying charges at that point.

Any adjustments required from last year’s bills will also be made at this point.

Social care support in the community is means tested and people in receipt of social care services in the community like home support, respite services, supported living and day time opportunities are normally required to contribute to the cost of their services.

Councillor Sarah Ferriby, Bradford Council’s portfolio holder for healthy people and places, said: “This is a really tough time for those who receive adult social care and their families and this is hopefully one less thing they will need to worry about.

“We are looking to support these people during this difficult time by removing the administrative burden of making bill adjustments to reflect changes to their services at this time.

“This means that new bills for services during the year 2020-21 will not be issued until the current situation has been resolved and our social care customers will not be charged until that point.”

“We are aware it has been frustrating for some families as we have had to restructure services to protect our service users and those who work in adult social care. I would like to thank everyone for their understanding and hope they will join in in thanking the work done by care workers who are doing an incredible job at this time.”

If families want to continue with their payments, any payments during this time will be used to credit your remaining balance for the new bills when they resume later in the year.

During this period, anyone struggling with payment plans for previous years social care invoices should make contact with the Payments Team on 01274 437724.