What are Direct Payments?
If you have eligible social care needs, you have a choice about how you can receive your care and support. A social work professional will assess your eligible social care needs. They will calculate a Personal Budget.
You have the option to arrange your care and support yourself. We will provide money to you to buy the support you need. You can also arrange for someone to manage the money for you.
Direct Payments are a cash amount based on the amount agreed in your Personal Budget. You then can arrange and pay for social care support instead of us arranging services for you. A Direct Payment offers independence, flexibility, choice and control over the support you receive.
It is your choice if you want to have Direct Payments. We must be satisfied that you understand what it involves. The way you choose to use the cash will need meet your social care needs. It also will need to achieve the agreed outcomes in the care and support plan. The way you use them must be legal and keep you safe and well.
For example, you may want to employ your own personal assistant (PA) to provide you with support at the times you want. Or you may decide you want to use the money to buy support from a care agency. You may want to find an alternative to the types of respite support we could arrange for you. You may want to find support with local community groups or enterprises.
Direct Payments are not a form of income so don't affect benefit entitlement or income tax.
You will have a Financial Assessment to work out how much you need to pay towards your care. This is called the assessed contribution. You must pay your assessed contribution into your Direct Payment account regularly.
The Council will work out your Personal Budget. It will estimate the total amount of money required to meet your care needs. The amount that is paid is your personal budget less your assessed contribution. You must pay your assessed contribution to ensure you have enough money to pay to meet your care needs. Your contribution is the first part of the payment. The council will ‘top up’ to the agreed personal budget amount.
Example 1
Your Personal Budget from your care and support plan is £100.
The Financial Assessment has been completed and your assessed charge is £20.
The Council will pay £80 to you to meet your care needs.
Example 2
Your Personal Budget from your care and support plan is £100.
The Financial Assessment has been completed and your assessed charge is £0.
The Council will pay £100 to you to meet your care needs.
Direct Payments Policy
The Direct Payments Policy sets out our approach for adults who:
- have eligible needs
- want to arrange their care and support with a Direct Payment
- and management and monitoring / review of the Direct Payments for adults
Read the Direct Payment Policy
Read the Direct Payment Policy Easy Read Guide
Direct Payments – Where it all started
Applying the principles of the Independent Living movement during the 1980s, some individuals and groups were able to successfully negotiate a financial package which enabled them to move out of the institutions they lived in and into the community. This was achieved by coming to a social and financial agreement with their Local Authorities based on an assessment of their needs. The money was used to pay for the support they needed through employing their own personal assistants (paid via a 3rd party provider because it was unlawful to pay cash in lieu of services to an individual).
