Personal budgets and direct payments

Find out about personal budgets and how you can arrange support with a direct payment.

Paying for your care with a personal budget 

If you've had a care needs assessment and a financial assessment, you may be given a personal budget to pay for some or all of your care and support plan.  

There are two ways that your personal budget can be spent: 

  • we arrange all of your care for you
  • you arrange all of your care with a direct payment

We’ll create a support plan that shows how your personal budget will be used to meet your needs, for both options. 

If you want to arrange all of your care, your personal budget can be paid as a direct payment. This will be given to you as a prepaid card. You can then use this to make payments for the care agreed in your support plan. 

Your responsibilities

If you want to receive direct payments, you'll need to sign an agreement. This is a contract with the Council that outlines your responsibilities for:

  • arranging the support or care services
  • making payments
  • keeping track of what's left in your budget
  • showing us how you’re spending your money
You’ll need to keep all of your receipts and paperwork in a safe place.

Help spending your money

If you need help to manage your direct payment, we can arrange assistance for you and make sure that you know what to do. This could be a local organisation that acts as your agent, to help you manage the money. 

You can also ask someone else to manage your direct payment on your behalf, such as a friend or family member.