Direct Payments (from local councils)

Tran · 31 January 2005 at 11:49PM

Hiya

Just wanted to ask a further question about direct payments from local councils made to disabled people. We have applied for an assessment and direct payment option has been offered to us. However i have been given conflicting information about who we can actually employ as a carer and use the direct payments to pay. I have been told that you can employ a close relative but the close relative must not live with you (that sounds fair enough). I was also told you cannot employ a close relative regardless of whether they live with you or not.

Also our local council's website states:"Users of direct payments decide for themselves who they employ to assist them with their care, providing they are eligible to work. However, direct payments cannot be used to pay partners or close relatives that live with you. As a general rule, you cannot employ close relatives who live elsewhere or other people living in the same household."

I wondered if anyone had experience of direct payments and could help me with what the 'general rule' above is.

1) who is classed as a close relative?

2) can a relative be employed for very personal help e.g. bathing/washing the disabled person?

3) are cultural/religious sensitivities taken into consideration? e.g. if for cultural/religious reasons it is inappropriate for non-relatives and especially non-relatives of the opposite sex to help the disabled person with very personal care. would this be taken into account as a factor that may allow the council to allow us to use direct payments to employ a relative?

4)Also if it is culturally/religiously inappropriate for a female carer (doing non-personal caring - e.g. washing/ironing) to be in the house with a male non-relative (the disabled person). IS it likely that the council will consider this and therefore may break their 'general rule' to not allow relatives to be paid carers?

Is it worth explaining this when direct payments option is brought up?
Any advice from anyone who knows about these will be welcomed. Ted perhaps?? fran??

thanks

Ted_Hutchinson · 1 February 2005 at 1:59PM

Scotland's policy which also happens to be much the same as local authorities here.

To get clarification on this you would be best served by reading or posting at the NCIL FORUM here if you enter the search work "relative" you will bring up all the previous discussion on this matter.

A further thought would be to discuss the problem with Stephen Ladyman at Carer's Org hosted chat remember though an election is in the air and what they say now may not be translated into action.

purple12 · 1 February 2005 at 11:23PM

Hi
I'm a social worker and what we've been told is that a close relative is only a parent/child or partner.
Generally noone who lives in the same household will be paid under direct payments as that would leave the council open to all sorts of tricky situations where we would be liable for paying for the general care that takes place on a day to day basis.

We have been told, however, that all these rules are flexible enough to be stretched in very specific circumstances, for example, if someone needs culturally specific care or absolutely refuses care from anyone except a close family member. There is quite a lot of room, potentially, for discretion by the social services department.

I think the confusion may come because the guidance was recently changed. We had previously been instructed that under no circumstances could close relatives be employed however a couple of months ago this policy was revised and we have now been told that we can pay close relatives that don't live with the person in question. It would be remarkable if someone living with a close relative would be paid but not completely impossible (though you'd have to give an extremely good reason).

It may well not have been explained to you at the time because the social worker wasn't completely sure themselves of the situation..

I know i haven't given a very clear answer, but I hope it's of some use at least..

Tran · 2 February 2005 at 12:06AM

Thanks Ted and purple12. All your information was very helpful. It appears that we may be able to ask if we can employ a relative who lives elsewhere as a carer and explain why this is the most culturaly and religiously appropriate. Also the disabled person has said that they would rather refuse help than have a non-relative carer of the opposite sex we will explain that to them.

It helps to have an idea of where you stand before you discuss this with the social worker so they can't fob you off.

Thank you very much for your responses.

brearley44 · 4 February 2005 at 9:52PM

Hi, I suggest you look on https://www.learningdisabilities.org.uk, join their Choice Forum you will find lots of info on direct payments, and yes it is possible for close relatives to get Direct Payments as long as they do not live in the same household as the person they are caring for.
Most local authorities now offer assistance with Direct Payments payroll/Tax issues
Good Luck!

glenstan · 24 January 2007 at 1:11PM

My dd was employed by her grandmother who had dementia as part of a team of 5 . DD had lots of expierience as a worker in the mental health sector. She found it very difficult being a worker looking after her grandma, she said she felt as though she was wearing 2 hats, and actually left as soon as we got someone to replace her.

papadore · 29 December 2007 at 11:28PM

My eldest son is the designated respite carer for my severely handicapped son, he looks after my younger son for 20 hours per week which is paid for out of the direct payments money, I manage the account as my younger son is so mentally impaired he cannot understand money at all, so a very close relative in our case my disabled son's older brother can be a carer approved by the social services.

papadore · 30 December 2007 at 7:05PM

Hi Zziggi, a lot of the councils say a close relative cannot be a carer but that's just not true, when the lady came to see me about getting direct payments for my son she made it clear that some of the clients insist on only being cared for by a close relative because of extreme embarrassment about their toliet needs/ personal care, she also said if its not in the clients best interest to be cared for by a stranger then the councils rarely argue, you have to stand firm because they will say again that it cannot be a relative but if needs be you go see your local carers group and they will help you make it clear the reasons why it must be a family member only, for my son it wasn't to difficult to make his older brother his official carer because he has extreme and challenging behaviour and the council were actually worried about a member of their staff being injured by him so his brother became his respite carer, its quite good really because my disabled son is really unhappy about strangers in the house and this can trigger a violent episode but this is minimised by his brother being able to look after him,
So when the direct payments are being organised just have all your reasons ready about why the carer must be a family member and not an agency carer, best of luck to you.

hippomaples · 19 February 2008 at 8:24PM

Hi Zziggi,

I hope you have sorted out your problem by now. The whole carer thing is such a headache (as if we havent all got enough to deal with worrying about the health of said loved ones). My local council battled with us over this when my mother broke her femur. My father is severley disabled and needs 24 hour care so when this happened to mum there was no-one to look after her or dad. I immediately moved back in and suddenly wasnt eligible to be paid. I lived too far away to trot over every day so it made sense to me but not the social services who would rather see both my parents in a home. Eventually the social services came round and saw that our "home made" care plan was working and I was not trying to con them out of money. At this point the social services cut through a lot of red tape and alotted us a set amount to use "as we liked". We were then able to give my parents loads more care hours as my partner and I were prepared to work for minimum wage rather than the cost of using an agency so if you feel using a relative as carer is the best option for you, keep on at them and if possible get the family doctor on your side as ours has been wonderful and has spoken to social services on our behalf on numerous occasions.

N71 · 20 February 2008 at 12:10AM

Hi, I've nominated my mum as carer for my son for the two hours per week i'm entitled to.
My social worker told my that close family wasn't allowed, buy mum has a different surname to me so we may have got away with it that way!?!?!

I also know a friend who looks after her nephew every friday overnight on the direct payments scheme - I must ask her how they got around it!

Andy2481 · 2 March 2008 at 10:37PM

Hello,

At the moment I live with two mates.

I employ a PA using direct payments and ILF money, but as a back-up, I also employ one of my flatmates for a couple of evenings a week (cooking etc).

In the next month or two, I am moving house to move in with my girlfriend. Can I keep my primary PA on as we are now, but replace my flatmate with my girlfriend? (We will be living together but she is not my fiancee or wife).

What are the Direct Payment and ILF rules regarding girlfriends/boyfriends? It seems ludicrous and unjust if I can't pay her a small proportion of my care money in return for the help she will give me.

Also, will I have to give my current flatmate a P45 when I move out? (He does have another full-time job)

Thank you

Direct Payments (from local councils)

Comments

Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

🚀 Getting Started

Categories

Is this how you want to be seen?

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free