How to submit care alowances

Drinda

One of my son's is seriously ill and has a part time carer paid for by the welfare, this chap is leaving soon and my son has the option of having the money paid to himself so that he can pay a carer of his choice or have someone from a agency, but he dosn't want strangers in and out of his home as he is often in bed for day's at a time.
He knows several people who would do this and they live near-by and are stay at home mums who can fit it in between the school run, one already fetches his shopping and they would work it out between them.
Now my question, is there a lot of hassle filling in the time sheets and would he have to deal with income tax, is there anyone on this forum that already does this themself who could advise.
Thanking you Drinda.

[Deleted User]

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/financialsupport/DG_10016128
HTH

Drinda

Thank you John I will go there now.
Drinda.

kingfisherblue

It sounds as though your son has been offered Direct Payments. Your local council will allocate an advisor and some councils will deal with the tax side of the payroll and send wage slips showing the amount to pay.

Any personal assistant will need to have an enhanced CRB.

daska

Sounds like Direct Payments or a Personalised Budget. The answer is 'it depends'. I have a Personalised Budget and employ a mix of agency staff, family, friends and others. In theory this method of funding is brilliant because it provides for a lot more flexibility; in practice, well, lets just say it's a brilliant cop-out for SS as they palm off a lot of admin work to the 'customer'. SS are supposed to take on the admin side of it if the customer can't manage it but my experience is that you're pretty much left to muddle through.

How it is supposed to work is that you complete a joint questionnaire and are allocated funds against specific 'outcomes' such as 'stay independent in my own home', 'maintain my personal hygiene', 'travel where and when you want' etc. You then devise a care plan to meet the outcomes. Once SS authorise the plan they then tell Finance who send you money and you get on with it. But... it does mean mean CRB checks, payroll, keeping accounts etc and 6 months after telling SS I'm struggling to make it all add up I'm still waiting for them to sort out some help. I've never been offered a service by the council to take care of payroll, thankfully I have a family member who has taken that on but legally you have to make sure of contracts, wage slips, P60s etc. There are companies who will do this but of course you have to pay for the service out of the budget. Agency staff mean no PAYE hassle but they charge double what you'll pay privately.

I'm not sure how much help I've been but if you have any more specific questions please feel free to ask.

kingfisherblue

Daska, I wasn't told that there is now somebody employed to do the payroll. I have had Direct Payments for five years for my son and have always dealt with the payroll (luckily just one employee and no tax, so fairly simple). It is only recently that I have discovered that there is now somebody employed specifically for payroll purposes, and that's because I needed more hours but was concerned about tax, so I rang for further advice.

Our council also ask whether you are paying staff that you are employing directly, or agency staff - there are two different rates depending on which you choose. The council pay for the CRB checks and sort those out for you (individuals cannot organise CRBs - they have to be arranged by an umbrella body such as the council). Money is also provided to pay Employer's Liability Insurance.

A separate bank account needs to be set up for DP; you cannot use your personal current account. I send in paperwork every quarter for auditing. This is just the bank statements and a sheet detailing how many hours work has been done, who by, how much has been paid, and is signed by the employee to confirm that it is correct.

daska

That must be specific to your local council, or maybe to Direct Payments. Payroll isn't a service that my local council provides and my budget is set before any choices are made as to who is employed. On top of that my local council don't do CRB checks (apparently they hope to offer the service by July but it took several months to find out that there is a local charity who will undertake to do these). I believe I'm supposed to have been sending in paperwork on a monthly basis but... well, I didn't have a care manager for six months...