Direct Payments Expenses Help?

daska

direct payments and personalised budgets are options that the council can/should/must offer (depends where you are). you don't have to accept them. the council can refuse this option if they believe that you would be unable to manage a budget. Managing your own budget means you can choose who you employ and what they do.

justlikethat_2

I felt forced to apply for direct payments for my daughter because otherwise she got nothing from social work. Over the last eight years we have had eight different social workers. Often in between times the post remained vacant for six months or more and it was difficult to get anyone with any knowledge of her when we called. At least with direct payments care will be there and more regular, I have a choice over who is employed and the times / days can be much more flexible (both to fit in with us and with the carers availability).

Frankly Direct Payments will be a lot of effort especially at the start but will it be that much more than explaining your situation to a new (probationary) social worker once or twice a year? Maybe not!

Frankly I feel much more qualified than most of the social workers we have had in the past to deal with my daughters care. Now if the social work system ran the way it was supposed to that would not be true!

Edale

jetcat wrote: »

i am in north east england! Is the carer getting below mimimum wage then

tell me to butt out if you want - i'm way too nosy for my own good!

Minimum wage is £5.73 per hour for those over 21, this figure is before tax. So the rate our council pay at is in excess of that but not by much.

weanie

I am in support of the idea of Direct Payments - there are many suggestions I could make which I believe could improve things for the people who take them up. I also agree with justlikethat [wholeheartedly] about the social workers and the situation they operate in. without being patronising however, I have to say that some people would view all the paperwork as onerous an beyond their ability to oversee. I imagine this is where people feel let dow by the system of payment.
My location is North west - not prosperous south - I dont know how Local authorities get away with various rates of payments.

mainecoon_lover

Hello all.

I use direct payments for my daughter and have private carers and agency carers come in on a daily basis. I have been on the scheme since 2003. We have always paid for the carers lunch, drink, concert tickets or park tickets through direct payments. You are also allowed to take them on holiday to help enable the disabled person. We have also taken a carer to out of county hospital appointments and paid for a hotel room for them. I never look at putting them in the ritz nor would i put them in a dump but we are always aware not to spend to much on a hotel room. As long as we have kept reciepts we have been ok. Our direct payments and ilf is to pay for personnel and social care. I would never expect my daughters carers to pay for themselves and we can not afford to pay for them.

allydowd

Edale wrote: »

Sorry to disagree but ignore the claiming back VAT post. It would not be worth registering for VAT and is not really applicable. URL].

It is my professional opinion as a member of the AAT that registering for VAT would be applicable, and worth it. You would not need to charge the family VAT on your services as your income would be too low but you could claim back VAT on expenses like petrol. Why not claim what you would be entitled to?