COMMENTARY ON SECTIONS Section 4 – Invitation to request means assessment
8.Section 4(1) places a duty on local authorities to invite a service user or prospective service user to request a means assessment when it offers a chargeable service or as soon as reasonably practicable thereafter.  It also places an obligation on a local authority, where a person is being provided with a chargeable service, to issue an invite in such cases as may be specified in regulations.
9.Subsection (2) provides that where an invitation is required to be given, a local authority may not impose or alter a charge unless certain requirements are met. These are that the invitation has been given and that, where it has been responded to in accordance with provisions to be set out in regulations, the authority has carried out a means assessment and made a determination as to ability to pay.
10.This section also gives the Welsh Ministers the power to set out in regulations the form and content of invitations and the manner in which they are to be made.