Frequently asked questions about direct payments

Your contribution has been calculated based on your financial circumstance. If you feel your contribution has not been calculated correctly, please follow the instruction on the charging notification letter and speak to non-residential finance team who will be able to look into this and explain how your contribution has calculated.

If non-residential team confirmed that the chargers has been calculated correctly, please contact your allocated social work team to discuss what are the options available. This needs to be done as soon as possible so the allocated social work team will be able to take necessary action.

If you have bought services from a care agency then you should speak to a member of staff at the care agency if you are unhappy. They should also have a complaints process that you can follow.

If you are unhappy with a personal assistant that you employ, you should discuss the issues with them to see if you can resolve the problem. You might also want to speak to the Direct Payment Support Services for advice and support. If not please speak to your allocate team in Adult Social Care.

A family member living in the same household should not be paid to meet the care needs of the adult. There can be short-term exemptions or specific circumstances that make it necessary to employ a person from the same household but this must be agreed with the local authority under exceptional circumstances.

As your direct payment is paid to help you meet your care and support needs, it is unlikely that you will be able to save your direct payment over a long period of time as this will mean that you are without care that we have assessed you as needing. However, it may be possible to make some small savings to your direct payment to pay for an outcome clearly identified in your support plan. Direct payments are also designed to be flexible but you can agree to ‘bank’ some payments for contingencies in your support plan.

Personal assistants can provide a range of care and support. Their role will depend on the needs of the individual. They may not need personal care but support with day to day living tasks or getting out and about. They will be supporting the person to achieve the goals and outcomes agreed in their support plan.

Direct payments are not a form of income. They are given to pay for services or equipment to meet peoples’ care and support needs. This means that they don’t affect benefit entitlement or income tax.

If an individual has does not have 'capacity' to agree to a direct payment (mental capacity is the ability to make your own decisions), they may have a friend or family member who already supports them with decision making. They may have a 'power of attorney' or 'court-appointed deputy' who may be able and willing to manage the direct payment on their behalf, or another appropriate person can be agreed to act as an authorised or a suitable person.

Just as for a person managing their care themselves, it is important that this person has a separate bank account for this money to avoid it being confused with other sums. They will also have to keep accurate records in the same way as well.

Direct payments can make simple differences that can have a big impact on how you live your life. For example, you can decide for yourself when to get up in the morning and what time to go to bed at night; something that may be controlled for you when you get care from Social Services. Perhaps you have some good days or weeks when you need less care, and others where you need more support to be able to manage. Direct payments are flexible enough to cope with this, and you can save ‘care hours' to use when you need them most.

This depends on whether you have someone ready to start working for you or have chosen a home care agency, or whether you still have to make your arrangements. Once the assessment has been approved, your arrangements are in place and the forms have been completed by your social care worker.

Not unless you have been offered a service to meet your own needs as the result of a carers assessment. However, it is possible to make formal arrangements so that you can support the person you care for to manage their direct payment if they cannot do so themselves. Many people who are eligible for respite breaks choose a direct payment, as they can buy care that enables them to have a break that is tailored for their individual needs.

There may be occasions when you require a stay in hospital. Your direct payment may continue whilst you are in hospital unless you do not require any support during this period or you need to retain the staff you employ. The Council will give individual consideration to direct payments continuing whilst you are in hospital.

The Council makes a decision every year over whether they will award inflation with any increase to take effect on the 1st April each year.

No. If you choose to receive your direct payment via pre-paid card then the Council will able to access your account records for monitoring purposes so you will not need to keep paperwork records. However, if you choose to receive your direct payment into a bank account then this will require you to keep records of money spent using your direct payment. However, this is not dissimilar to managing your own personal finances. If you become an employer and employ a personal assistant, there are some additional paperwork but support is available to assist you with this.

Yes. It is essential that you are given a contract for any services you purchase as this should clearly define the terms and conditions of the service being provided.

A DBS check will highlight if people have convictions which may have a bearing on their suitability for being a care worker. The Direct Payment Support Services can provide you with information on how to go about making checks on individuals you wish to employ. Individual direct payment employers cannot apply for DBS checks on other individuals however they can access DBS checks through certain organisations. We also recommend that employers take up employment references as part of the recruitment process.

Yes. If you think there are possible risks in providing care to yourself or the person you are acting as agent for, you should share this information where necessary. It may be that you have a formal risk assessment that you can share. If you are using a care and support agency, it is the responsibility of the organisation to carry out a risk assessment to ensure they can safely meet your needs.

As an employer you are responsible for ensuring that your staff are appropriately skilled and trained. Some training provided by the Council for its staff is also offered to external organisations as well as those employing Personal Assistants.  The Direct Payment Support Services also have access to Skills for Social Care Organisation to ask for free training.

The person may need to pay the difference directly to the provider as we pay the standard hourly rate. Only one difference will be the Head of Service’ s approval will be required if adult social care are to pay additional cost for exceptional circumstances.

People must not be forced to take a direct payment against their will, but instead be informed of the choices available to them.

A council can refuse a direct payment if it does not wish to provide one, as long as it has legally defensible reasons – which it has to share, so as to enable a person to address them, if they choose.