Direct Payments
An Introduction to Direct Payments
An Introduction To: Direct Payments
What Are Direct Payments?
What are Direct Payments?
If you require support or help with Social Care, Sheffield City Council can carry out an assessment of your needs, to establish what support you require. Following this you may be awarded a Personal Budget. This is an amount of money that goes towards the cost of help and support you require. If you decide to have this money paid directly to yourself, so that you can make the decision on how it is spent, then it is called a Direct Payment.
If you believe you require support or help but do not currently receive it from Sheffield City Council, visit then visit this page to Get a care and support assessment.
Carers UK have produced the Assessments: Your guide to getting help and support in England Factsheet which details how both carers and those who require care and support can get an assessment to assess their needs.
Direct Payments can be used for a wide range of support and services including the employment of a PA. That’s where the Sheffield PA Register comes in! Here you can advertise for either a PA, or advertise that you are a PA looking for employment. It’s a place for PAs and Employers to make connections, helping them find the PA or Employer who is right for them. But employing a Personal Assistant isn’t the only thing you can use a Direct Payment for.
You can use it for the following:
- To employ a Personal Assistant
- To employ a care agency to manage your care and support
- To pay for respite care
- Attend activities & services that support our wellbeing centre
- To pay for a piece of equipment that is not available to you
through NHS equipment services - To pay for transport to services or activities if the price of the transport is significantly higher than most people would normally pay
Direct Payments may seem confusing at first, as there are so many options for you to personalise your care, but Sheffield City Council’s What are Direct Payments? video is a great place to start if you’re new to Direct Payments.
This information is also available in a handy PDF format: What are Direct Payments? PDF.
Direct Payments don’t count as income in any means tested benefits, and so will not affect the amount of benefits you receive. However, they may affect the amount of benefits a Personal Assistant you hire receives, if you pay them with your Direct Payment, as this counts as income.
Direct Payments
Resources for Direct Payments Recipients
Direct payments can give you much more flexibility and greater control of your support package. This page has information about what direct payments are, and below you can find more detailed information about direct payments.
Sheffield City Council
Sheffield City Council
Sheffield City Council have a wide range of information about Direct Payments on their Direct Payments webpage, including:
This factsheet explains your options when thinking about how you can best manage the money you receive in your Direct Payment. Whether it’s with the support for family or friends, the Direct Payment Support Service or organisations like the Sheffield Credit Union.
This factsheet explains the details you will need to provide to Sheffield City Council in your financial monitoring. Financial monitoring is way for the council to make sure that your Direct Payment is being spent on the support and service that you require.
Link: Paying Personal Contributions Towards your Support Factsheet
This factsheet explains the details you will need to provide to Sheffield City Council in your financial monitoring. Financial monitoring is way for the council to make sure that your Direct Payment is being spent on the support and service that you require.
Link: Direct Payment Financial Monitoring – What we need to see
This factsheet explains the circumstances around when and how a Direct Payment may close. This may happen if you move into residential care or if you choose to have your support arranged by the council.
Direct Payment Support Service
Direct Payment Support Service
The Direct Payment Support Service is provided by Penerels Trust in partnership with Sheffield City Council, and supports adults and children in Sheffield who receive a direct payment to get the most out of their care money and to achieve their goals.
Support offered by the Direct Payment Support Service includes:
- Support with setting up your direct payment
- Support when recruiting a personal assistant
- Guidance on all aspects of being a good employer including legal obligations and responsibilities
- Support with choosing and using a care agency
- Help with keeping accurate records
This factsheet explains the services Penderels offer to support Direct Payment recipients in Sheffield, such as:
- Information, Advice and Support Hub
- Personal Assistant Recruitment Support Service
- Direct Payment Support
- Peer Support
Link: Penderels Guide to Direct Payment Services in Sheffield
The Direct Payment Support Service also offers a range of additional resources to Direct Payment recipients in Sheffield, including:
Sheffield Parent Carer Forum
Sheffield Parent Carer Forum
Sheffield Parent Carer Forum is an independent group of parents and carers of children and young people (0-25) with special educational needs and disabilities. Their main aim is to ensure the needs of their children are met.
Produced in conjunction with Sheffield City Council, this factsheet explains Direct Payments in an approachable way, with a focus on parents of children with disabilities.
Sheffield Parent Carer Forum’s Peer Support Service is available to all parents of children and young people (0-25 years) with additional needs in Sheffield. A formal diagnosis is not required. All of our Peer Support Workers have lived experience of caring for a child with additional needs and a good understanding of local services.
The Peer Support Service provides:
- Information, advice, and signposting to relevant services
- Confidential one-to-one support via telephone, video call or face-to-face meetings in a community space (flexible appointment times)
- Information sessions about common issues
- Peer Support Groups where parents and carers can meet others who face similar challenges (see below)
Link: Peer Support Service
Sheffield Parent Carer Forum
Contact: For families with disabled children
Contact is a national organisation supporting families with disabled children.
In addition to their Information and Advice resources and Listening Ear support service, Contact have produced a comprehensive factsheet introducing readers to the range of services they can expect from their local authority, and how they can go about accessing them.
Link: Services and Support from your Local Authority Factsheet
Disability Rights UK
Disability Rights UK
Disability Rights UK is one of the UK’s leading organisations led by, run by, and working for Disabled people. Their Disability Rights UK Personal Budgets Helpline is an advice service that is open for individuals and organizations to provide information on Personal Budgets.
This line gives information on the national eligibility criteria for social care funding, care needs assessments and care and support planning as well as the national eligibility criteria and non-residential community care charges. Calls cost up to 9p per minute from a landline, and 3p to 55p per minute from a mobile.
