Life With MND
Direct Payments for Carers
Direct payments are payments made by your local council. They are available for anyone who has been assessed as needing help from social services. The amount you receive will depend on the assessment your local council makes of your needs. If you are applying for services for the first time, your local council social services department should discuss the direct payments option with you when they assess your needs.
Direct payments can be used to employ someone to provide assistance or buy services from an organisation. As a carer, you can use a direct payment to purchase the services you are assessed as needing to support you in your caring role. This includes support to help maintain your health and well-being. For example, leisure activities, education and training or a holiday, so you can have some time for yourself. If you are assessed as needing domestic help, you can ask for a direct payment to buy the support you need.
You cannot use direct payments to buy services for the person you care for. For example you cannot buy replacement care while you have a break from caring. However, the person you care for can have a direct payment for this.
Neither can you use direct payments to secure a service from your spouse or partner or any other close relative (and their spouses) who live in the same household as yourself. The exception being someone who you have specifically recruited to be a live-in employee.
If you already receive social services, your local council is obliged to offer you the option of direct payments in place of the services you currently receive. There are some limited circumstances where you are not given this choice, so contact your local council to find out more about what these are.
Direct payments are not a replacement of income and therefore do not affect any other benefits you may be receiving.
The needs of the person living with MND you are caring for will change, so do make sure you contact your local council as soon as this happens so they can reassess your needs and the level of payments you require.
