Adult Social Care Glossary, v 0.6

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. [Paras 40 and 41 give an extensive, but not exhaustive, list of examples of DRE.]

Money that you have to spend on things because of your disability, that you would not have to spend otherwise. This may be for things like extra laundry, high heating bills or special clothes. The law says that your council should look at these expenses when it does a financial assessment, to work out how much you can reasonably afford to pay for chargeable services.