For the first time, the Care Act gives a legal entitlement to Personal Budgets. This is to make sure that person centred care and support arrangements are developed as widely as possible. Your social worker will help you understand the different options to arrange and pay for your care and support needs. These personalised approaches are set out below.
Do you find personal budgets and other options for paying for care difficulty to understand? Ask for an independent advocate. They can help you to arrange care that best fits you.
Personal budgets
A personal budget is money that the Council gives you to pay for any care and support that you need. Your community care assessment will help you decide what services will help you live a life that’s as full and safe as possible. Then, your care worker will talk with you about paying your personal budget as a direct payment.
Direct payments
Direct payments give you lots of control over your care and support. You can decide how your needs are met and buy the support that suits you best.
It’s important to spend your direct payments carefully, making sure that you cover all the needs shown in your assessment. Your care worker will help you make your decisions and our Direct Payments Team is here to help with questions about your payments. Most people prefer us to pay their money as a ‘direct payment’.
Managing your money
There are different ways to receive your direct payments. We will help you to choose the option that is safe and easy for you to manage and gives you as much independence as possible.
- Instant Access Account: the council will help you protect your account and keep track of your spending.
- Standard Direct Payment: you take responsibility for keeping spending records which the council will check.
- Indirect Payment: a relative, or advocate takes responsibility for keeping spending records which the council will check.
- Individual Service Fund (ISF): payments are made to your care and support provider who will manage them in line with your assessment.
There are a few rules about how you can spend your direct payment but as long as your spending is legal and relates to the care and support needs as agreed in your care plan, it is usually fine.
We will need to see you within the first 6-8 weeks after your first direct payment and again if you need more help or advice. We will then review your payment regularly (at least once a year).
Deferred payment agreements
A deferred payment agreement is an arrangement with the council that enables some people to use the value of their homes to pay for their care costs.
Deferred payment agreements are now available in all areas of England which means that people may not have to sell their homes in their lifetime to pay for their care, as they have sometimes had to do in the past.
If you are eligible, we will help to pay your care home bills on your behalf. You can delay repaying us until you choose to sell your home, or until after your death.
We will charge a small amount of interest on the amount owed to us, and there may also be a fee for setting this arrangement up. These will be set to cover the council's costs and not to make a profit.
Deferred payment agreements will suit some people's circumstances better than others'. If you are still living in your own home, you will not need a deferred payment agreement.
A deferred payment agreement is only one way to pay for care.
To find out more about the options available, you can speak to a financial adviser or seek advice from an independent organisation.