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Employing a PA

Suranjana

My 20 year old daughter has direct payments for a PA to boost life skills and companionship. I’ve been asked by the social worker to employ a suitable person and manage the DPs (prepayment card). I have no idea how to go about finding a PA and find dealing with all the paperwork daunting. Could I please have some pointers on how/where to start the process of employing someone – do I have to advertise? We’re in South Oxfordshire.

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Comments

Albus_Alumni

Hi @Suranjana, how're you today?

I understand it's all a bit confusing and they've not given you a great deal to go on there. We have a lot of information regarding getting a PA and direct payments here and also some advice from Disability Rights UK here. If you need additional advice, we're all happy to support you.

Suranjana

Thanks, will have a look. If there's some advice available from people who have direct experience, it will be much appreciated :-)

poppy123456

I have experience of managing my daughter's Direct payments a few years ago. My LA put me in contact with a payroll company in the area where I lived at the time. I was given a choice of whether I wanted to use a care company or employ a single person. I chose the latter because my daughter needed to be able to trust just one person. They placed the advert for me and I interviewed them.

The payroll company, would produce the payslips and tell me how much I needed to pay HMRC each month for the PA's tax and NI. They would send my PA and myself their payslip and I would then pay the PA her earnings each month.

Your LA should also set up a bank account for the DP to be paid into. They will also have access to that bank account so they can check everything is running smoothly.

You also need to make sure you have insurance for your home, this will cover everything is any accidents were to happen. Again your LA should have advised you on this.

It's quite confusing to start with but you'll soon get the hang of it but if you're not sure about something then you need to ask your LA for some pointers and they will be able to advise you.

I will say though that if it's just a few hours per week then you may struggle to find a PA for such short hours.