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Direct payments and Personal Assistants - do you get more for your money?

mousey

If you employ a PA with Direct Payments and instead use your client contribution with the direct payments as opposed to using a council and care agency (who charge more per hour than they pay the carer) - are you able to do more with the PA's time and the cost would be less?

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mousey

I've heard PA's can also do things like support you to go on holiday and it's a lot more 'life enhancing' than the support care companies give?

poppy123456

Hi,
No, not necessarily. It depends on how much a PA would charge per hour. You will also need to make sure you get business insurance for your home.

It also has its downfalls. Having a PA means you only have that 1 person to rely on and what would happen if they weren’t able to work because of illness, or they were on annual leave? Would you be able to manage for that period of time without the extra help?

Yes, they maybe able to support you to go on holiday but then you will also have double the holiday cost because you will need to pay for them as well as yourself. You will also still need to pay their wages.

You should definitely do some research before doing anything else.

neuromum4

I have a PA and get direct payments,
I had the enablement team (my local council carers) come in was supposed to be 6 weeks but ended up for for 4 months, They did not just leave me but having lots of different people was too much for me.

This was for the initial assessment period where they could identify where I need the help.

I have book keeping company sort everything out for fee. There is insurance, sick pay, payslips. they sort out all and the inland revenue stuff and all I sign and submit the pay slip to the book keeping company each month with the carers hours (take a photo and email it) Was bit much at first but I got help to fill out all the paperwork. I also pay my PIP element to the council and they pay the rest.

I made an agreement all the things I needed done and I am not sure but after tax and NI I think my carer gets just under £11 and hour (I can't remember exactly)

For me it was the best thing I could have done.

My carer is flexible and she does loads.

Example I have 13 hours a week.
She helps me with personal care, housework, shopping, cooking, attending appointments, medication including ordering repeats.
Take my daughter to school, stay with me in the night.My personal laundry. She pops in multiple times per day and I don't even know what I would do without her.

I also asked social services for a cleaner as they only allocated cleaning for an hour but I explained to them, which they know I am confined to bed for 18+ hours per day and have 3 children at home (I have 4) one left.

I can't move around much or do much and explained that the house not being at a decent standard gets me down (I also have OCD) and its frustrating for me because I can't do much.

So they agreed as it was further affecting my health I could have a cleaner 4 hours per month and I submit the recipets to them.

Anything I buy on a regular basis for my health/care needs I give them the recipets and they reduce my contribution.

So for example my electric bill got me a small reduction quarterly because I have to charge my wheelchair, scooter and bath lift.
Podiatrist (comes to house) and window cleaner.

I use extra cleaning products, air freshener, wipes, toilet roll, enco pads, washing powder etc.

They even give reduction for cabs (rare I go anywhere) and for a mobile hairdresser to wash your hair.

I would say it's right to do a bit of research first but that's just my own experience.

I hope this was ok to read, I have dyslexia and dyspraxia.

Thanks

Durhamjaide

poppy123456 said:

Hi,
No, not necessarily. It depends on how much a PA would charge per hour. You will also need to make sure you get business insurance for your home.
It also has its downfalls. Having a PA means you only have that 1 person to rely on and what would happen if they weren’t able to work because of illness, or they were on annual leave? Would you be able to manage for that period of time without the extra help?
Yes, they maybe able to support you to go on holiday but then you will also have double the holiday cost because you will need to pay for them as well as yourself. You will also still need to pay their wages.
You should definitely do some research before doing anything else.

Normally they recommend employing 2 but it’s hard to find 2

poppy123456

Durhamjaide said:

poppy123456 said:

Hi,
No, not necessarily. It depends on how much a PA would charge per hour. You will also need to make sure you get business insurance for your home.
It also has its downfalls. Having a PA means you only have that 1 person to rely on and what would happen if they weren’t able to work because of illness, or they were on annual leave? Would you be able to manage for that period of time without the extra help?
Yes, they maybe able to support you to go on holiday but then you will also have double the holiday cost because you will need to pay for them as well as yourself. You will also still need to pay their wages.
You should definitely do some research before doing anything else.

Normally they recommend employing 2 but it’s hard to find 2

That was never recommended to me when my daughter had a PA. The problem with employing 2 people is they would need to share the hours. It's often difficult to find one if you don't have many hours to start with so finding 2 is likely impossible.

freespirit

mousey said:

If you employ a PA with Direct Payments and instead use your client contribution with the direct payments as opposed to using a council and care agency (who charge more per hour than they pay the carer) - are you able to do more with the PA's time and the cost would be less?

Hello all, I am new here! I am in the process of trying to recruit a Personal Assistant and finding it difficult to locate places to advertise for free? Or any database sites for PA/carers as such?

It seems there are very limited options and resources available and left to sort all this out. (Unfortunately local authorities haven't been very supportive unfortunately, which is why we are trying alternative methods. )

Here are some sites I have found during my research (though not utilised so cannot recommend.)

carepair.co.uk
curamcare.com
https://www.find-a-pa.co.uk/ (Covers Hammersmith and surrounding areas.)

https://papool.co.uk/ (Charges a fee approx. up to £20 per month.)
https://ukcil.com/ (Charges a fee: Website states £96.)

Other links that may be useful:

https://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/home.aspx
https://a4u.org.uk/
http://www.s4il.co.uk/services/direct-payments-support-services/

Thank you,

Kind regards