direct payments?

homealone_2

i have a care package currently set up by the dss and run from a carer agency who come in daily to bath, make breakfast etc. i have just been told by my carer that the agency she comes from has lost the tender from her agency and now from monday i will be sent a new carer or possibly 3 as i have different visits for different things. the worry i have is that the new agency is the one that was documented recently on panorama or similar program. besides their bad press i dont really want to start with someone new again as it is really distressing. the dss have said i can opt out of the agency and do what they call direct payment method where from what i gather they give you x amount of money every week and you make your own arrangements. this way i could keep my carer but also change hours or servic offer to best suit my needs. my initial concern was whether i would lose benefits if it were to appear i was getting this extra income but they have said it is all arranged in a seperate account and would not cause any problems. they dont give much more info and obviously dont want to make a decision that may affect the level of care i get in the future or any other problems. has anyone opted for this direct payment scheme and if so how does it work? and how is it working out for you?

daska

I had a visit from my social worker to tell me how much they've awarded us for the coming year so I'm new to this as well but I think I understand... ish...

Direct payments are stopping. They're being replaced by Personal Budgets or Allowances or something which is nearly the same but not quite... Anyway. You do a joint assessment with your carer and social worker and they send this off to a suit somewhere who works out what you need to cover your care needs. You then work out a plan, with your social worker, that meets those needs in the way that suits you - that can include using some of the budget for one-off pieces of equipment or treatment that isn't available on NHS - my social worker had just had one approved that included a course of hypnotherapy, we're spending some on a dishwasher - and what you need in the way of care. You can choose whether you use agency staff (expensive) or employ your own carer/s (you are responsible for interviews/ police checks etc). (If the current agency are losing their contract will your current carer be losing her job? could you employ her?). Once the plan is approved you get paid the money weekly into a dedicated account (doesn't have to be a bank account) and provide statements to show that the money is going where it should be. And that's it, reviews after 6 or 12 months depending on the size of the budget and your needs.

Alternatively you can opt to have your social worker continue to arrange the care for you.

easy

Well it's still direct payments around here, I've been receiving it for 5 years, and it works well for me, arranging my own staff and paying them for what I need. The money I receive is reviewed each year by the Social Worker.

The downside of it is that you become an employer (unless you use agency staff, in which case you will get far fewer hours for your money). So unless you are happy about paying someone, dealing with tax and national insurance, employment law etc (I'm okay with it, have a business background), you will need to use an agency to do those bits for you (Social services should recommend one or 2 tho, and that won't cost the same as using an agency carer).

Do bear in mind that good staff are VERY hard to find, and you need to allow them to take holiday etc, when you will need relief cover if you can't manage without help.

All that said, it does mean you get to choose who cares for you (altho you can't pay a family member using this money), which is a very good thing from my point of view.

longhotbath

Hi, My experience is the same as easy. We have just started with direct payments and they are holding my hand through the starting up process until I am comfortable with it.(the Direct payments are for our son)

Daska, you mentioned before that direct payments are stopping - who told you that? I was told that that wasnt the case.

Js_Other_Half

longhotbath wrote: »

Daska, you mentioned before that direct payments are stopping - who told you that? I was told that that wasnt the case.

In the long term I believe anyone entitled to DP will go over to individualised budgets:
http://www.dhcarenetworks.org.uk/personalisation/index.cfm

Our area is piloting it for some disabled children.

easy

I believe the personal-budget scheme a long-term project, which is planned for the whole country eventually. But each local authority can choose when to adopt the scheme, and plenty (inc mine) are dragging their feet.

From my point of view it would be a huge improvement, allowing some money to spent on equipment to allow me to do difficult things myself, rather than paying someone to do them for me.

daska

It was my social worker who told me Direct Payments was stopping. I don't think she meant that everyone would wake up one morning to find they had no more money coming in, just that they weren't starting anyone new on direct payments. As I understand it the personalised budgets are more flexible, allowing equipment purchases where this can aid independent living. And you can employ family members, just not your partner - my social worker told me this morning that it would be ok for my sister in law to provide some care (she's self employed in a completely different field) and that she has someone else on a personal budget who employs her sister. Other differences I'm noting from comments above are that you only employ staff on a self-employed basis, so no tax/NI problems to deal with. Our case has been an eye-opener apparently because it's not an 'individual' but a 5 person care package.

weanie

I have been operating direct Payments [on behalf of my mum] for over year now. There were some teething problems. Mum needed a separate and ring fenced ban account which could be used exclusively for the purpose of direct payments and this was hard to arrange with the requisite cheque book becasue Mum already had a cheque book and an account and that seemed to be her limit! I would warn people that they would have to accept the responsibility of being an employer and doing all the paperwork, advertising for staff, managing contracts and interviews and holidays and sickness pay for staff. I was ok with it but it is quite time consuming.
We can and indeed have employed family members on occasions and this has been completely successful. We would not be allowed to employ a family member if that person was in fact living with Mum. Adult grandchildren have provided good part time care along with an ex nurse and a very nice lady who used to work in a care home.
I have not heard any news about our local authority stopping these payments or rolling out a new scheme.
i have never used the payments for anything other than salary and am interested to know what other items or expenses others have claimed.

daska

We'll be using some of our budget for a dishwasher (2 adults requiring care and 3 kids - this is very much looked forward to, securing windows and garden against a very active toddler intent on escape to allow us to spend time indoors and outdoors with less stress and a bath lift.

firedaisey

homealone wrote: »

i have a care package currently set up by the dss and run from a carer agency who come in daily to bath, make breakfast etc. i have just been told by my carer that the agency she comes from has lost the tender from her agency and now from monday i will be sent a new carer or possibly 3 as i have different visits for different things. the worry i have is that the new agency is the one that was documented recently on panorama or similar program. besides their bad press i dont really want to start with someone new again as it is really distressing. the dss have said i can opt out of the agency and do what they call direct payment method where from what i gather they give you x amount of money every week and you make your own arrangements. this way i could keep my carer but also change hours or servic offer to best suit my needs. my initial concern was whether i would lose benefits if it were to appear i was getting this extra income but they have said it is all arranged in a seperate account and would not cause any problems. they dont give much more info and obviously dont want to make a decision that may affect the level of care i get in the future or any other problems. has anyone opted for this direct payment scheme and if so how does it work? and how is it working out for you?

Direct Payments don't count as income so they won't affect your benefits.
Each Council operates Direct Payments in its own way, so much of the detail that you would need to know depends on where you live. Many Councils fund a Direct Payments support service to help you with the nitty gritty of employing people. Ask your Social Services if they have one in your area. They are the people who can give you most advice about the pros and cons in your particular situation and in your particular area. Some Councils for example are more generous than others in working out the costs of Direct Payments and also the degree of flexibility they allow.



.Direct Payments aren't really stopping, they are just being developed into a system which is even more flexible i.e. Personal Budgets.

daska

firedaisey wrote: »

Direct Payments aren't really stopping, they are just being developed into a system which is even more flexible i.e. Personal Budgets.

Yep, the more I read about it the more it sounds like this is the case. It seems that for us it's been a good move as there has been the flexibility to treat us as a family unit rather than piecemeal. And my social worker seems to have misunderstood - I said earlier that it was self-employed only, it isn't, you can incur Tax/NI responsibilities as well. Not a problem for me as I have software which will do this for me... I never thought I'd be glad to see Sage again!