FAQs about buying your own care

Is a Personal Budget different to an Individual Budget?

The terms Personal Budget and Individual Budget are often used to mean the same thing, but there are differences.

The term Personal Budget refers only to the funding allocated by social care.

An Individual Budget includes the Personal Budget element, but also includes other sources of funding - for example:

Supporting People Funding
Directgov: Supporting people
Disabled Facilities Grants
Directgov: Disabled facilities grants
Department of Work and Pensions Independent Living Fund
Independent living fund

Who can have a Personal Budget?

Provided you are eligible for support from the council, anyone over the age of eighteen with care and support needs may qualify for a Personal Budget, for example if:

You have a physical, learning or sensory disability
You have an age related illness or impairment
You have mental health problems

This is subject to an assessment of your needs and your individual financial circumstances.

What choices do you have with a Personal Budget?

Everyone eligible for social care support will be offered a personal budget. There will be choices available about how you manage that budget. There are three choices:

Take all of the personal budget as a direct payment - people decide what services to spend their money on
To ask the council or other agreed third party to pay directly for the support and arrange the services for them
Mixture of services - people decide that they want the council to arrange some services for them and to use direct payments to arrange other things.

What can you buy with a Personal Budget?

A disability, age-related illness or mental health condition often means you need some help or support. Friends and family may offer informal help, but other support will often have to be purchased using either your own money or that provided by the council.

The type of things people often buy with their Personal Budget includes, domestic 'home help' to cook, shop and clean, personal care for example: washing, dressing and going out. These can be obtained by hiring the services of a care agency support worker or by employing a Personal (care) Assistant to work for you. People have also spent their Personal Budgets on holidays and leisure activities, such as membership to a gym or football club, driving lessons, computer equipment and such like.

There are some rules regarding what you can spend your money on:

It should improve your quality of life
It should be safe and appropriate
It needs to be used to meet the agreed needs and outcomes set out in the support plan
It must be legal
It cannot be used for gambling
It cannot pay for things that may be paid for by the National Health Service
You will not normally be allowed to use a Direct Payment to pay people that you live with to provide care for you, if however you feel it necessary then please contact us to discuss.

What if you already get council funded support services and/or a Direct Payment?

You will have to complete a Self Assessment Questionnaire. You will be told how much your Personal Budget will be based on the answers you give. You can then choose to keep existing services or your Direct Payment and write your Support Plan to reflect this or you may choose to do things differently.

What is a support plan? A support plan is a person-centred plan, specifically designed around an individual's needs.
It is completed after an assessment and identifies:

Your needs
Keeps you safe
What is most important to you
Outcomes you would like to achieve, and
How you propose to do this with your personal budget

Support plans are directed and owned by you, but have to be agreed by the council to make sure the money is spent to meet your needs and, that you keep safe and identified risks are discussed and managed. Personalisation creates the correct framework for preventing abuse by strengthening citizenship and communities.

Most importantly of all, personalisation works - and it makes life safer for people by getting them in control of their life, which could reduce the experience of abuse that can occur in traditional regulated services.

Can you make your own care arrangements?

Cash payments (known as direct payments) are made by the council to people who want to arrange and purchase their own community care services.

Once your needs have been assessed, this option is made available to you and you are able to take over the management of your own care plan. You will be able to use this payment for all services that the care manager / social worker would normally arrange such as personal and practical help, daytime activities or short term visits to residential homes or respite breaks.

In choosing this approach, you will take on certain responsibilities in managing financial records and submitting returns.

What if you are not entitled to a Personal Budget?

If your financial circumstances mean you are not entitled to council funding, we can still help you make sure your needs are met in a way that suits you.

The council and its partners support many people who use their own money to arrange the care they need and most of the support we offer is available to you in exactly the same way as if you received council funding.

We can help you work out what your needs are and what it might cost to meet them; make a plan specific to you about how best to meet your needs, navigate the market to find services which will best suit you. Later on, we can help you review how things are working and make changes to your arrangements where appropriate .

Will your savings and pension affect your Personal Budget?

You will not have to pay anything if you receive the guarantee credit element of Pension Credit or Income Support. If you do not receive either of these, the council will ask you to complete a financial form on which to give details of your income and expenses. They will use this information to work out whether you will have to pay a contribution, and if so, how much.

Your Personal Budget is not a state benefit or treated as personal income - it does not affect other allowances or state pensions and is not liable to income tax. Welfare benefits such as, Incapacity Benefit, Employment Support Allowance and Disability Living Allowance are not means tested.

What if your circumstances change?

If your circumstances change so much that you need more (or less) care and support, then you should ask the council to review your situation.

You can revise your Support Plan because you think that there might be a better way of meeting your needs. You can do this without talking to the council, so long as it is within the amount set for your Personal Budget and it still meets the aims of your Support Plan. If you are unsure seek advice from your Social Worker/Care Manager.

What if you are not happy with the amount of your Personal Budget?

If you are not happy, you can talk to your Social Worker/Care Manager who will advise you what to do.

Who can help you?

Throughout the process you can ask family and friends for help. You will be allocated a Care Manager/Social Worker who will guide you through the process and answer any questions you have.