Direct payments are local council payments available for anyone who has been assessed as needing help from social services. They are normally available if you are a carer aged 16 or over or a parent (including people with parental responsibility for a disabled child).

Direct payments can be used to buy services from an organisation or employ somebody to provide assistance. For example, you could employ a carer to provide you with a break from caring.

Or, if you are assessed as needing domestic help you may ask for a direct payment and buy in support.

Your local council is obliged to offer you the option of direct payments in place of the services you currently receive. (There are some limited circumstances where you are not given this choice and your council will be able to tell you about these.)

To get direct payments you’ll need to contact your local council to ask them to assess your needs.

Direct payments are also available for disabled people who have been assessed as needing help from social services.

The amount you receive will depend on the assessment your local council makes of your needs. Direct payments are made directly into your bank, building society, Post Office or National Savings account.

If you already get services from your local council, ask about direct payments.

If you are applying for services for the first time, your local council social services department should discuss the direct payments option with you when they assess your needs.

You cannot use direct payments to buy services for the person you care for. They can only be spent on getting the support you, as a carer, have been assessed as needing.

You also cannot use direct payments to secure a service from your spouse or civil partner, close relatives or anyone who lives in the same household as you, unless that person is someone who you have specifically recruited to be a live-in employee (other than in exceptional circumstances, which your council may agree with you).

Direct payments are not a replacement of income and therefore do not affect any other benefits you may be receiving.

If the needs of the person you care for change (for better or for worse, or in the long or short term) contact your local council as soon as possible so that they can reassess the level of payments you require.

Local councils can also review direct payments as children’s and families’ needs change over time, just as they do when families are receiving services directly from a council.