How much will I get?
The amount you will be paid will depend on the number of care hours you have been assessed as needing. We pay different rates, depending on the time of day and day of the week. The rates increase from time to time. The rate is based on the amount you will need to pay someone that you employ yourself (known as a Personal Assistant), with some extra built in to cover the usual employment costs such as holiday pay and national insurance. This will all be explained once you have made the decision to consider having your care using Direct Payments.
If you choose to use your Direct Payment to buy care from an agency you will have to make sure that the agency you choose does not charge more than the current Direct Payment hourly rate. If you choose a more expensive agency you will need to pay the difference from your own income.
What can/can’t the Direct Payments Money be used for?
Direct Payments CAN be used to buy in services to assist with:
- Personal Care Needs - such as assistance to get washed and dressed, bathing, hair washing, assistance with medication, help with meals and food preparation.
- Practical Support - such as laundry, shopping, paying bills, making or changing beds.
- Other assistance to enable you to live as independently as possible in your home.
- In certain circumstances you may also be able to have a Direct Payment instead of a respite or day care service.
- You can use the Direct Payment as flexibly as you wish provided that your assessed needs are covered (for details of your assessed needs please refer to your Care Plan). For example you can use the payment to pay an agency to provide a care assistant or you can employ a Personal Assistant of your choice (or have a combination of both), you can choose the times that your care is delivered - instead of someone else telling you what time they can come.
- You decide who will provide the care and you decide on the arrangements.
- You can employ a relative who does not live with you.
Things you CAN NOT do with a Direct Payment for Care
- You are not allowed to have a Direct Payment to pay for services directly run by Swindon Borough Council (SBC)(e.g. SBC Homecare, SBC day centres or respite in SBC residential homes) or any permanent residential care.
- You are not allowed to purchase health services with a Direct Payment (this includes things like hydrotherapy or physiotherapy).
- You are not normally allowed to employ a spouse (husband/wife or a partner you live with as though they were husband/wife/civil partner) or a close relative who lives in the same household as yourself.
These are rules laid down by the Government.
Carers –
If you provide unpaid care for someone (e.g. a relative or friend) on a regular and substantial basis, and are eligible for a Direct Payment as a carer:
- You cannot usually use the payment to pay for services (such as day care or residential respite care) or personal care directly given to the person you care for.
- You can pay, for example, for a sitting service to give you a break.