Hi,
I have had the social services advise my grandfather to have a personal budget we have been given to conflicting stories as to what it involves and Im just wondering does anyone else have it? positives and negatives for having a personal budget rather than having carers via the the council hired.
Have you Googled ( SOCIAL SERVICES DIRECT PAYMENT )
If you can arrange it try a mixture of both.
Council carers tend to be reliable but inflexible...rules and regulations y'know. Useful for daily essentials like personal care, breakfast and maybe laundry and shopping. Your needs are assessed by your social worker and you will have an agreement with the carers that will include not asking them for any services that fall outside that agreement. No, they can't go to the bookies for you...Tax, holiday cover and National Insurance are all dealt with by the local authority or the agency to whom they've outsourced the work. They tend to turn up in thick and thin but then may have to be somewhere else 10 minutes before they arrived! Fantasy rostering is the bane of carers and cared for alike.
A Personal Assistant can provide a bespoke service as defined by a job description written by you and can include more varied activities and services, especially those that will stop you becoming isolated, unfit or unhappy. You are able to choose your PA yourself - it can even be a family member or friend - but you will be responsible for a chunk of their livelihood and this may cause anxiety. And as you will know. STRESS is the enemy. There are charitable organisations that will deal with the admin for you. Your social worker wil know who does this locally. A special bank account, set up in the client's name is then used to deal with the Personal Budget going in and the wages for the PA going out. Again, if banking and finances generally cause you grief, help is at hand because this too can be dealt with by aforementioned charitable agency. It's a creaky, time consuming system and it can take a while to set up. There will be many people to meet and papers to sign and it can be tiring and a big, big hassle. However, a few hours a week with the right PA doing things that you would otherwise be unable to do can transform your life.
Hope this helps
Hi Lesley 83,
I am the main carer to my husband but I have a carer whom I pay through Direct payment. I was lucky to find this PA (as they are called nowadays) through an excellent organisation Hafad (organisation for the disabled).
I found it much better than my experience with the carers from Agencies.
The contact is more one to one, they are not sent all over the place by an Agency, you interview them, not someone from the Agency, you make a proper job description and ask them what you want them to do. The paper work is very easy and will be explained to you. You need to have an assessment first by the Social Services to fix the amount you will receive and the amount of hours; then you can open a bank account just for that.
If no organisation can help you find someone, you can put an advert.
Will you be doing the paper work for your grand mother? it is very easy, you only need to be shown once.
Good luck!
Natasha
Do you live in Wales Natasha . ( HAFOD ?? ) Is the allowance MEANS TESTED
Hi Johnie,
No, I live in London but I expect and hope that there are similar organisations all over Britain. In the area where I live, the council does not means test before
assessing. One must enquire wherever they live to know how the system works.
First thing is to contact the Social Services.
Natasha
