Direct Payments for Care

If a disability, mental health or age related condition or chronic illness seriously affects your independence and quality of life, you may be eligible to receive your personal care budget through a direct payment. You can choose to manage your direct payment yourself, or you choose to nominate a person or organisation to do this for you.

There are lots of things that you can use your direct payment for and all will usually be agreed as long as they meet your assessed needs and have clear outcomes for you. However, there are certain things that direct payments definitely cannot be used for and these tend to be:

• Emergency or acute services, which are already provided by the NHS to everyone in the country without charge.
• The vast majority of primary healthcare services (including visits and assessments), as GPs provide a comprehensive, registration based service, which is free at the point of access.
• anything unlawful or prohibited by the local authority or that will bring the local authority into disrepute, i.e. gambling, alcohol, cigarettes, etc.
• anything needed for everyday living, e.g. rent, food, bills, etc.
• If you would like to discuss the option of direct payments, speak to your nominated social care worker or care coordinator.