Service User’s Guides for Receiving Direct Payments
Children’s Services
This document, tells you about Personal Budget / Direct Payment
1.
Basis of the Personal Budget / Direct Payment Agreement ..................................... 2
2.
General rules about how to use the money .............................................................. 2
3.
Employing a Carer / Personal Assistant ................................................................... 3
4.
What expenses can be claimed ................................................................................ 5
5.
CRB Checks ............................................................................................................. 6
6.
Employers Liability Insurance ................................................................................... 7
7.
Managing your Personal Budget / Direct Payment ................................................... 7
8.
If things go wrong or the service user’s needs change ............................................. 9
9.
Review of the Personal Budget / Direct Payment ..................................................... 9
10. Suspending or Terminating the Personal Budget / Direct Payment Agreement ..... 10
11. Support and advice ................................................................................................ 11
12. Data Protection ....................................................................................................... 11
13. Comments, complaints and compliments ............................................................... 11
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1. Basis of the Personal Budget / Direct Payment
Agreement
Direct Payments are given to individuals on the basis that:They live in Luton and;

An assessment of the service user’s needs for community care services has
been completed and that they have been assessed as eligible to receive
support services as indentified / shown in their care / support plan.

They are willing and able to secure the services detailed in the care / support
plan themselves (or with support).

They agree that any packages over 25 hours a week/£250 is paid through a
holding account.

Luton Borough Council is willing to make Personal Budget / Direct Payment
available to enable them to purchase the support they need.
2. General rules about how to use the money
The Personal Budget / Direct Payment is designed to prompt independence, and
freedom of choice for the service user on how they access the respite bite care /
short break support as identified in the individual care / support plan. It gives families
the flexibility to look beyond traditional social care services, thou families can request
to have a mixture of Direct Payments and services operated by social services.
You should contact the service user’s allocated social care worker if you wish to
change anything or unsure whether you can use the money for something outside
the plan. If this is not agreed in writing, prior, to spending, then you may be asked to
repay the money.
Luton Borough Council Children’s do not charge for social care services, however
when the young person reach 18, they will be re-assessed and may be required to
contribute to their service.
The amount of money individuals receive under Personal Budget / Direct Payments
will depend on the service user’s assessed needs. These rates will be reviewed
regularly as detailed in section 9. If you wish to “top up” your direct payments in
order to purchase more expensive services, then you are able to do so.
Direct Payments will not be taken into account when working out social security
benefits which relate to the family income. Direct Payments replace the services that
social services would have otherwise provided. The Inland Revenue do not regard
Direct Payments as taxable income for the service user; however the carer will need
to pay income tax on the money they receive for working with the service user.
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You are accountable and responsible for using the allocated money wisely and
legally within these guidelines and the UK law.
3. Employing a Carer / Personal Assistant
As a generally rule Personal Budget / Direct Payment monies can be used to employ
a carer /personal assistant / child minder or 3rd party agency to support the service
user. This can be for personal care, sitting service within the service user’s house,
specialist childminding or someone to take the service user out for activities to
enhance the young person’s independence/life skills
Luton Borough Council are very flexible regarding your choice of carer/ personal
assistant however we do have a criteria that they must be able to meet before we will
allow them to employed as a direct payment carer. Anyone found to be employing
someone that doesn’t meet our criteria may be required to repay any payments made
to the carer.
We will not allow the following persons to be employed as a direct payment carer.

Anyone who does not have a current (less than 3 years old) and clean enhanced
DBS (Disclosure & Barring Service)/CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) check

Anyone under the age of 18 years old

Anyone who does not have the legal right to work within the UK – see the home
office website for details of those who can legally work in the UK.

Any persons who are in receipt of a service provided by Luton Borough Council
(i.e. Short break / respite care) in respect of their own child.
The following persons are generally not allowed to be employed as a direct payment
carer unless in very exceptional circumstances and these MUST be agreed prior to
employment with the Child Disability Team Manager & the multi agency panel.

Any close family member whether or not they live in the same household as the
service user, i.e. grandparents, aunt, uncle or sibling.

Any LBC worker or professional already working with the family or a relative of a
LBC worker or professional. This needs authorising to ensure no conflict of
interest for either party.
3.1
Using Care Agencies
If you chose to use a care agency, we recommend that you purchase care from a
provider who is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The Care
Quality Commission will inspect the standards provided by agencies nationally,
ensure that the Care agencies are paying their carers’ tax and National insurance.
They will also ensure they have public liability insurance and that they DBS/CRB
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check all their carers. There is a list of registered local providers available, please
see your allocated Worker.
The care agencies must provide an headed invoice detailing the service supplied
(including dates and times) at least once a month.
We recommend that you keep your own records of the dates and times that your
carer works and these can be checked against the agency invoice.
It is your responsibility to pay the invoices on time and then submit the invoice/receipt
as part of your quarterly return.
3.2
Using Self Employed Carers /Child Minders
If you wish to use a self employed carer we recommend that you use a registered
carer such as a child minder.
All child minders should be OFSTET registered and the National Association Child
Minder co-ordinator will be able to provide you with a list of child minders who have
done additional training for children with additional needs, please speak to your
allocated Worker.
All self employed carers MUST be able to supply a copy of their Self Employed
Status Certificate or accountant’s letter at the beginning of the contract and thereafter
at the end of each tax year to prove that they are paying their own Tax & National
Insurance - otherwise you could still be liable for any Tax or Insurance due to HMRC.
A copy of this should be sent to your allocated worker and a copy kept with your
Personal Budget / Direct Payment records.
All self employed carers should have their own public liability insurance, which should
be renewed annually, a copy of this should also be sent to your allocated worker and
a copy kept with your Personal Budget / Direct Payment records.
The Self Employed Carer must provide an invoice showing their name and address,
and detailing the service (including dates and times) at least once a month. It is your
responsibility to pay the invoices on time and then submit the invoice/receipt as part
of your quarterly return.
If the Self Employed Carer also cares for the service user’s siblings at the same time
or provides other services in the house, then these must be shown separately on the
invoice and parents must pay that portion of the invoice as direct payments can only
be used for the care of service user.
3.3
Employing your carer/ personal assistant directly
Many families chose to employ their own staff and therefore take on the responsibility
of being an employer. If you do choose to employ your own staff then Luton Borough
Council commissions a 3rd party agency to provide support to assist you with all
matter relating to being an employer – See Section 11 Support and Advice.
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The 3rd party agency operates a payroll service for families employing carers through
Direct Payment. They offer detailed advice on becoming an employer, including
advice on employment contracts, holiday & sick pay etc. They will also co-ordinate
between HMRC and yourself to ensure that your employees are paying the correct
amount of tax and national insurance (where applicable).
Anyone found not paying a carer through the payroll service and without a
valid self employed status certificate may be required to repay any payments
made.
If you employ your own carer, you will need to keep signed timesheets with the dates
and times that the carer works. Each month you will need to contact the payroll
operator to confirm the hours worked and they will produce a payslip which will be
sent to you detailing the amount to be paid to the carer.
It is you responsibility to make the payments to the carer and the HMRC (unless
operating via a holding account).
Carers should be asked to sign timesheets to confirm receipt of the payment and
these should be submitted as part of your quarterly returns.
It is your responsibility to inform the payroll operator if a carer leaves your
employment so that they can make final payments, send P45 and notify HMRC.
It is your responsibility to also inform the payroll operator if you take on a new carer
so that they can be set up on the PAYE scheme and ensure that the carers are tax &
insurance at the correct rate.
Every quarter the payroll operator will send you written confirmation of any payments
due to HMRC. This confirmation of payment is then also submitted as part of your
quarterly returns.
4. What expenses can be claimed
Luton Borough Council Children’s services does not pay any additional allowance for
expenses, however families can chose to either use the enhancement element or
reduce the number of hours they employ a carer in order to pay carer expenses,
such as travel expenses i.e. bus fares, train fares or mileage for taking the young
person around the local area and car parking at venues, if they wish to. These
payments can be used weekly or saved up for a more expensive activity once a
month or annually.
If the individual care/ support plan states that it is for independent social activities,
then the direct payments can be used to fund carer’s entrances into the activities,
e.g. bowling, swimming, cinema, sporting events, zoo or theme parks etc. Families
should contact the venue to see if concessions are available to individuals with
additional needs and where applicable take advantage of these.
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Direct Payments can also be used to pay for registered after school / weekend clubs,
holiday play schemes or some instructor led activity where the carer is not required to
stay, such as football, swimming etc.
If you choose to buy a small gift for your carer using the direct payment monies for
either birthday, Christmas or Eid, then this should be a token gift no more than £5-10
annually. If you wish to purchase a larger gift then you will be required to fund this
yourself.
Direct Payments CAN NOT be used to pay for;
 Any form of domestic services i.e. cleaning, laundry, cooking
 Items provided by Health, Occupational Therapy or Wheelchair Services
 Activities provided within the normal school day, i.e. swimming, cookery, horse
riding, school trips
 Photos, souvenirs, postcards from outings or school,
 Transport to or from school,
 Family holidays or outings
 Replacing items damaged by the young person
 Gardening or play equipment i.e. summer house or trampolines
 Any form of clothing, baby wipes, nappies/pads, etc – whether to be used at
the carer’s home or when out with the carer
 Hairdressing or any type of holistic therapy etc
 Any expenses, sweets or entrances for the service user
 Any bank charges / legal charges / Inland Revenue late charges will be your
responsibility and MUST NOT be paid out of the Personal Budget / Direct
Payment monies.
This list is not complete; please check with the service user’s care support worker
prior to claim. In some very exceptional circumstances we agree to fund these as a
one-off.
The direct payment monies must be used to purchase care for the service user only.
If the carer also looks after the service user’s siblings at the same time as being paid
to care for the service user out of the direct payments then the parents need to make
provisions for the siblings as the employers insurance etc will not cover the other
children. Parents need to make clear arrangements regarding the payment for the
other children and show this on the returns.
Any unauthorised spend outside the service user’s care / support plan may be
required to be repaid.
5. DBS/CRB Checks
Any carer/ personal assistant/ care agency worker/ child minder etc that you chose to
employ to work with the service user/young person MUST have a current an
enhanced DBS (Disclosure & Barring Service)/CRB (Criminal Records Bureau)
clearance BEFORE they can start working with the service user/young person, we
will NOT authorise any payments to the carer relating to prior to the date of the
DBS/CRB clearance.
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The original DBS/CRB clearance MUST be shown to the allocated Worker, who will
take a photocopy for their file, and you are required to keep a copy in your Personal
Budget / Direct Payment folder. Anyone who is not able to produce a valid and clean
DBS/CRB clearance (less than 3 years old), will need to submit a DBS/CRB request
through us.
Where the service user is 16/17 years old, the DBS/CRB clearance MUST also cover
vulnerable adults.
If the service user/young person is looked after in the carer’s home i.e. a child minder
then all members of that household should be DBS/CRB checked in order to safe
guard the young person.
6. Employers Liability Insurance
Employers’ liability insurance is a required for anyone employing one or more
employees. If you have employees, there is a chance that they may become injured
at work or become ill as a result of working for you or you may have to dismiss them
for whatever reason. If this happens, they might be entitled to claim compensation;
Employers' Liability Insurance covers you against this.
As such Luton Borough Council purchases Employers Liability Insurance for all
families receiving Direct Payments and employ carers, except whereby the persons
are using an agency or self employed carers who have their own insurance.
It should be noted that if you employ a carer or personal assistant, then the
Employers Liability Insurance WILL NOT cover for the person to look after the service
user/young person in the carer’s home. It will only cover for care in the services
user’s home or in the community. If you wish for the carer to look after the young
person in their home then they MUST be OFSTET registered and have their own
public liability insurance.
7. Managing your Personal Budget / Direct Payment
The service user’s appointed representative is responsible and accountable for
ensuring that the money given to them by Luton Borough Council is properly
accounted for and only used to purchase services as agreed under the Direct
Payment scheme.
You will need to keep the following records in your Direct Payments file,
 Valid copy of each carer’s DBS/CRB clearance,
 Valid copy of any carer’s self employment status certificate (where relevant),
 Valid copy of Employers’ liability insurance certificate
 Signed monthly timesheets for carer or invoices
 Signed copy of carer expenses
Direct Payments are paid weekly via BACS into either a Self Managed Account or via
a holding Account.
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7.1
Self Managed Accounts
Self Managed Accounts are controlled and operated by the service user’s appointed
representative (I.e. family or guardian). The payments are made into a dedicated
bank account set up by the service user’s appointed representative for the sole
purpose of Direct Payments.
Most self managed direct payments packages require families to submit Quarterly/3
monthly/12 weeks returns. However, if your care plan states that you only use the
hours during the school holidays, it may be better for you to have an annual one-off
sum of 13 weeks monies, payable on the first payment run in April (or proportional if
started thereafter during the year), and as such you only then need to submit your
returns twice a year (once in September & March).
You are required as part of your Direct payments returns to send the following
documentation every time,




a DP3 return listing the details of what the money has been spent on
a copy of the bank statement running from the last statement date for the
Personal Budget / Direct Payment account ) (paper or internet transactions),
signed monthly timesheets for carer or invoices
signed carer expense sheets listing the cash purchases, together with all
original venue receipts/invoices (paper or internet transactions).
. These should be sent to;
The Finance Officer,
ISCAN Child Disability Team,
Futures House
The Moakes
Marsh Farm
Luton, LU3 3QB
01582 54 75 75
7.2
Holding Accounts
Direct Payments which are managed via holding accounts are operated by our
appointed 3rd party agent. Therefore they are responsible for making payments out
of the account and will submit the DP returns on your behalf. However, you remain
in control of managing the service and as such it is your responsibility to;



Notify the carer’s hours to payroll service monthly, in order to ensure that the
carers are paid within the payment run.
Ensure that carer’s expenses are sent along with the relevant receipts in
order to ensure that the carers are paid within the monthly payment run.
Ensure that any agency invoices are checked and promptly passed to the
holding account for payment.
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As stated in section 3.3 it is important that you let the payroll service know if a carer
leaves your employment or if you take on a new carer.
Any claims for carers’ hours or expenses that are not within the agreed service plan
will not be paid and parents will be expected to reimburse the carers from their own
funds.
8. If things go wrong or the service user’s needs change
If things go wrong or the service user’s needs change, whether this is a short term
situation or a permanent change in circumstances you should contact your allocated
social care worker immediately to discuss the situation and if need be arrange a
review.
9. Review of the Personal Budget / Direct Payment
After the initial set up of the service package a 3 month review will be held with you
and the service users’ allocated social care worker. This will look at how the service
is running for you; whether you have had any problems identifying a carer, also they
will assist you with the first return if necessary.
Thereafter there will be a minimum of a face to face review every six month; however
it could be more frequently depending on circumstances and the size of the package.
This review will look at how you have been managing the funds, how the service has
worked and whether it has met the needs of the service user and what has been
achieved over the previous period
If your bank balance exceeds an acceptable level then we reserve the right to either
request the surplus monies back, or to suspense payments until such times that
funds fall below the threshold, or review the service package. We recommend that
you keep a balance in your account of no more than 10 weeks monies, for example;
If you receive £50.00 a week, then we would recommend that you have no
more than £500 at any one time, i.e. 10 x £50 = £500 in your Personal Budget
/ Direct Payment bank account
The review will also look at whether the service user’s allocation will continue at the
same level based on the assessed needs of the service user.
If the allocation needs changing because of a change in needs / circumstances we
will give you 30 days notice and you will have a new Personal Budgets / Direct
Payments Service Package Contact to sign.
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10. Suspending or Terminating the Personal Budget /
Direct Payment Agreement
Either you or we may suspend or terminate this contract prior to the service user’s
18th birthday by giving 30 days notice in writing to the other party under the following
terms;
In the event of the service user being hospitalised or out of the country or a carer not
available for a significant period, resulting in the direct payments building up in the
bank account, then we may suspend payments until normal care package resumes.
This will be following discussions with you.
In the event that the agreed paperwork is not supplied to us as agreed within this
agreement (i.e. on a quarterly /12 weekly basis); you will receive 2 written reminder
from the council. If the paperwork is still not received 1 month after the date of the
first letter, then you will receive 30 days written notice that we will suspend payments
until such time that the returns are brought back up to date.
We may suspend payments any time with notice, in order to further investigate, if we
suspect that; you are employing someone who does not meet our criteria as laid out
in Children’s services latest guidelines; or you are using the money illegally; or there
is a misuse of the money; or money is not being recorded within the terms laid out
within Children’s services latest guidelines and or the service user’s care plan. Whilst
under investigation we shall work with you and your agent / decision maker to find a
resolution to any issues wherever possible as quickly as possible.
If payments are reinstated after a period of suspension, then payments will not
automatically be backdate to the date of the suspension - This will be following
discussions with you.
We may terminate this agreement with immediate effect if, after investigation, it is
found you are employing someone who does not meet our criteria; or you are using
the money illegally; or there has been a misuse of the money; or money has not been
used within the terms laid out within this agreement and or the service user’s care
plan.
If your Direct Payment agreement is terminated follow an investigation of misuse as
detailed in this agreement then we will seek to recover any funds paid.
In the unfortunate event of a death of the service user then the Direct Payment
agreement will be terminated immediately and payments will stop.
The Direct Payment agreement with Children’s Service will naturally terminate on the
service user’s 18th birthday. We will work with yourselves and Adult Services to
ensure that the service user is re-assessed in time to ensure a smooth transition from
Children’s to Adult services.
When your Direct Payment terminates; the payments will stop and you will be
expected to submit all outstanding returns, accompanied by any relevant
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documentation within a reasonably timescale. If a balance remains as unspent funds,
after final returns are received and reconciled you will be expected to repay Luton
Borough Council this amount.
If any monies are not repaid within 30 days of the council issuing an invoice or
demand then Luton Borough Council will implement our Debt Recovery process,
which may include issuing County Court proceedings against the Recipient.
11. Support and advice
We employ an independent 3rd party, in order to offer service users and their family
advice and support regarding Personal Budget / Direct Payment. This includes
advice on all aspects of employment, such as recruitment, help with producing job
description, application forms, interviewing and selecting an employee. They will
help with employment contracts and all aspect relating to being an employer etc.
They also operate a payroll service and will produce monthly payslips for your
employees, calculating and deducting any tax due. They will offer advice on what
financial records you need to keep for Direct Payments.
This is a free service to the service user and their family; a referral to the service will
automatically be sent once the direct payment package has been agreed. The
Disability Resource Centre will then contact you to make an appointment for a home
visit.
Direct Payments Support Service
The Disability Resource Centre
Poynters House
Poynters Road
Dunstable, LU5 4TP
Telephone No 01582 470 900
12. Data Protection
We will keep the information you give us both on computer and paper records, treat it
as confidential and will not pass it on to any unauthorised person. However, we may
pass on some of the information to meet legal or welfare needs, or if we feel it is in
the public interest, or to protect public funds. We will also send information to other
organisations to be used in the detection and prevention of fraud.
13.
Comments, complaints and compliments
You have the right to comment, complain and compliment under the Councils
Housing and Community Living complaints procedure about the operation of this
Personal Budget / Direct Payment agreement. You can write to: Freepost,
Feedback, Luton Borough Council or via email to Feedback@luton.gov.uk
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