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Direct Payments
What are Direct Payments?
Direct Payments are money paid by the Local Authority to a person who has been assessed as needing support, so that they can pay for their own care services. Since 2003 it has been compulsory for Local Authorities in England to offer Direct Payments to anyone over the age of 16, who requires services, in almost all circumstances. It is still discretionary in Wales.
Responsibility for day-to-day management of the money and the care plan passes to the client or their representative.
Direct Payments are not social security benefits, and receiving Direct Payments will not affect a person's entitlement to benefits.
Who gets them?
Anyone over 16 who has been assessed as requiring support - either as a client or as a carer - has the right to ask for Direct Payments. This includes people with mental impairments, such as learning difficulties or dementia, though they have to be able to give consent in order to receive them. If a person has an EPA (Enduring Power of Attorney), the Attorney cannot consent on their behalf, and if their care needs change, the Attorney cannot consent to Direct Payments for the changed support services on their behalf. For this reason, it is suggested that consent to receive Direct Payments should support services become necessary in the future, is written into an EPA, if the client wishes.
The government has stated that it wants as many people as possible to benefit from Direct Payments, including those with mental impairments, as a means of improving choice and control. A client can have as much assistance as is necessary in order to manage their care plan, and the money.
Equally, it is absolutely clear in law that no-one need have a Direct Payment unless they want one. As explained above, consent is an express legal prerequisite to the authority being able to discharge its otherwise direct and absolute enforceable statutory duty to provide or arrange an appropriate package of services for anyone with assessed eligible community care needs. This is enshrined in s57 of the Health and Social Care Act 2001. In other words, if you choose not to accept responsibility for your own care plan, you are completely entitled not to, and the Local Authority has a legal obligation to provide the services that you have been assessed as needing.
Clarification of the legal position with regard to Direct Payments is provided by Belinda Schwehr, Legal and Training Consultant: www.careandhealthlaw.com
How can they be used?
Direct Payments can be used to pay for all, or just a part, of assessed care needs.
They are not intended to replace family care and support, so for this reason, they can not normally be used to pay a close relative to provide a support service, though in exceptional circumstances, this can be done.