What are direct payments?
Council's are able to offer some people money to pay for the services they need instead of arranging community services, such as home care services or day services, for them. When a council gives someone money in this way, it is known as a direct payment. People who get this money must use it to arrange services to meet their assessed care needs. It is not extra income to be spent on other things that don't meet these needs.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of direct payments?
People can decide how their needs are met, by whom and at what time. If they use direct payments, they can combine them with other services and funds to tailor services to their individual needs.
Direct payments carry with them responsibilities. Users of the payments must manage their care and the funds, with help if necessary. If a direct payment user employs their own staff to act as ‘personal assistants’, they will have the tasks of recruiting suitable staff and ensuring they fulfil the legal requirements of responsible employers. Some people are able to successfully manage these tasks but others may find them too difficult, even with help.
Who can be given direct payments?
To receive a payment, people must be:
- A disabled person
- The carer of a disabled adult
- The parent/carer of a disabled adult
and be;
- Assessed as needing services
- Able and willing to manage the payment, either alone or with help.
Also, everyone who wants to arrange their own care using direct payments must sign an agreement to follow the council's rules about their use.
How much are direct payments, how are they made and on what can they be spent?
The amount of money that can be paid to people is set by the council's assessment of their support needs.
Direct payments are paid to people every four weeks in advance. They go directly into a separate bank account that must be set up especially for the payments. The money must be spent to buy the care and support that the council has agreed to fund following a community care assessment.
Direct payments can be used to employ their own staff to meet the persons care and support needs or to buy care from sources such as private care agencies.
The council is not allowed to sell its own services to direct payments users.
Direct payments are not for buying any other goods or services. They cannot be used for ordinary daily living expenses such as food. We carry out regular checks to ensure the payments are managed properly. The council will stop the payments if they are mismanaged or misused.
What help can I get help to manage direct payments?
Direct payments users can get help in arranging and managing their care from appropriate relatives or friends. They can also get support and advice from various other organisations who will offer help and advice (although some may charge you for on-going services.)
Will they affect my benefit entitlement or the tax I have to pay?
Direct payments do not affect the benefit entitlement or tax position of people who receive them. This is because direct payments do not form any part of their ordinary income. They are separate funds to buy the care services the council has assessed them as needing.
Will I have to pay anything towards my care?
Everyone that receives community care services are financially assessed to work out their weekly contrivution a person is able to pay towards the cost of their care. The amount an individual is required to pay depends on their income and other financial details.
Who can I employ using direct payments?
Users of direct payments decide for themselves who they employ to assist them with their care, providing they are eligible to work. They can use direct payments towards the cost of recruiting a live-in carer. The council has worked with people who have experience of employing Personal Assistants to write a handbook
There is also a website where North Lincolnshire people can advertise for Personal Assistants and you can access that site here
Self assessment of care needs
The council is responsible for assessing people’s social care needs. This helps determine the level of help they need. It is important for the council to have good information about each person’s care needs. Tasks that are unimportant to some people may be essential to others. For example, it may be essential for some people to have help to access college.
A good way of getting information on each person's needs is to ask them to do a self assessment of the tasks they need help with, when they need that help and the amount of time it takes to help them.
How can I get more information?
More information is available in the council’s ‘User’s Guide to Direct Payments’:
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Further detailed information is available in ‘Everything you need to know about getting and using direct payments’. This publication is available free to people with disabilities from:
The National Centre for Independent Living
250 Kennington Lane
London
SE11 5RD.
Tel: 020 7587 1663
Fax: 020 7582 2469
Minicom: 020 7587 1177.
Other useful sources of information are listed in that publication.
For further information you can contact:
Adult Social Services on 01724 297979.
For independent help, advice and support, take a look on the internet, or Yellow Pages and other listings to find out what companies and agencies are in your area.
Note: The above documents are in Portable Document Format (PDF) and therefore require a suitable reader to view them. A reader can be downloaded free from the Adobe website (full instructions for downloading the reader are provided on the site).