Managing your Personal Budget

You can choose to receive the Personal Budget in a number of ways:

• As a Direct Payment
• As a Fully Supported Personal Budget
• A Combined Personal Budget

Direct Payments offer you the most choice and control over the care and support that you need as money allocated for your support is paid directly into your Direct Payment bank account.  There is lots of support available for those people who choose to take the Direct Payment option, for further information on services available visit the Penderels Trust website. In situations where you feel you cannot manage the money yourself, it may still be possible to have a Direct Payment. Further information on Direct Payments can be found on our Direct Payments webpages.

However, if you do not want to take a Direct Payment you can still have your money and services managed through the Council through a fully supported personal budget. 

The Personal Budgets Options table explains more about the advantages and disadvantages of the different choices.

Personal Budget Options

Use of Personal Budget	What does it mean?	What's good about it?	What's not so good about it?
Direct payments	Your Personal Budget is paid directly into a Bank Account and you manage the money yourself.	You are in charge of your money and have more choices about how and where you spend it to meet your outcomes (as agreed in your Personal Support Plan).	You will need to keep records of how you spend the money and if you employ your own staff you will also have responsibilities of being an employer.
Facilitated Direct Payments	A trusted friend or family member opens a bank account for your Personal Budget and supports you to manage the money.	You get help to manage your money and retain a lot of control over where you can spend your money.	You don’t get quite as much choice and control yourself and may have to pay a fee to have someone else manage the money for you.
Suitable Persons	In cases where the person eligible for services lacks the capacity to make their own decisions, it may still be possible to have a Personal Budget with Direct Payments.	You, as the suitable person, get to make choices about how and where you spend the money to meet the outcomes as identified in the Budget Holder's Personal Support Plan.
Fully Supported Services	The Council purchases services on your behalf and these are paid from your Personal Budget.  This could include setting up an Individual Service Fund with a provider who will deliver their service flexibly (i.e. service may differ each week according to your needs).	Worcestershire County Council makes all the arrangements with the provider for you through our Brokerage service. However, if an Individual Service Fund has been set up, you will agree the flexible services with the provider yourself.	You have less choice and control because we can only purchase support from providers who are contracted through the council.
Combined Personal Budget	You could have a mixture of Fully Supported Services and Direct (or Facilitated Direct) Payments.	You can have parts of the Personal Budget managed for you and you can control the parts you want to.	It can be confusing remembering who is paying for what.

This page was last reviewed 17 May 2013 at 13:41.
The page is next due for review 13 November 2014.