Direct payments

Mr Simons had different agency carers coming in each week arranged by the Council. Although the quality of care they provided to Mr Simons was of a high standard, he wanted the same person to support him each week. Mr Simons decided to take his personal budget as a direct payment and recruited a personal assistant who came in each week to support him.   

After you have been deemed eligible for support through Adult Social Care, your allocated social worker will complete a needs assessment with you and if applicable, will then contact the Direct Payment Team who will support you in setting up and maintaining your Direct Payment.

The team will be there to provide support throughout the time you use a Direct Payment to meet your care needs. We can help if your care needs change, if you want to alter the way your care needs are met, or if you run into difficulty.

Our services include

• information and advice on all aspects of direct payments
• information and advice on employment
• support in the recruitment process
• help in developing a plan for managing your direct payment
• support in arranging a payroll service
• ongoing support with managing staff and the payments - if required

With the right support and information, most people are encouraged to manage their own Direct Payments. This means you will be responsible for how your money is spent. You will be sent a Pre-Paid Card where funds will be loaded every four weeks. You must be able to show that these funds have been used for the services and support agreed in your care plan. The Direct Payments Team will carry out regular audits of your Direct Payment.

This means you will have to keep track of your spending.

We will ask you to

• keep receipts and invoices
• send us information on how you have spent the money when requested
• check with your social care worker if you want to spend the money on something that is not in your support plan
• return any money not used to us
• keep records on wages, tax, and national insurance if you employ a carer or personal assistant

Yes, you can nominate someone you trust to manage your Pre-Paid Card payments on your behalf. This person will be named on the Pre-Paid Card system so that the Pre-Paid Card Company (Pre-Paid Financial Services) know that they have authority to speak on your behalf and make payments.    

If you have been assessed as having eligible care needs, you may choose to receive your Personal Budget as a Direct Payment. This will enable you to organise and pay for your care yourself. We will provide you with a Pre-Paid Card to manage the Direct Payment funds we pay you.   

A direct payment prepaid card works in the same way as a bank card for a current account. We load the direct payment on to the card for you to use.  

You can use the card to pay for the support we have agreed to in your support plan to meet your assessed care and support needs

• light touch monitoring - you no longer have to send us monthly bank statements
• it’s easy to manage the payments for your care and support
• you have safe online access to your account information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• if you cannot manage your account online, Pre-Paid Financial Services (EML), the card issuer, provides prepaid card customer services for telephone banking
• available regardless of financial status
• no need to open a separate bank account
• funds can easily and quickly be loaded onto the account
• it is impossible to go overdrawn with a prepaid card
• it eliminates the need to carry cash
• as with a normal bank account, the money on your card will be protected if your card is reported as lost or stolen
• they can be available to someone that you nominate to help manage your direct payment, if required