Direct payments - paying family members

Benefits, finances and funding
1

Statutory Guidance to the 2014 Care Act.

"PAYING FAMILY MEMBERS
12.35 The direct payment is to be used flexibly and innovatively and tehre should be no unreasonable restrict placed on the use of the payment, as long as it is being used to meet eligible care and support needs."

2

( Said section appears in the main DP thread as part of the analysis. )

Mmmm … clashes with Emplyment Law IF made available to the carer through the caree.

CUK Advice Team have had this issue since September 2018.
https://www.carersuk.org/forum/support-and-advice/all-about-caring/direct-payments-paying-a-family-member-to-care-no-but-the-jury-is-out-30902?hilit=direct%20payments

Time for them to let us know their own findings … bearing in mind WE identified the problem in the first place !

After all , just how many carers out there are at risk IF their LAs have flounted the law ?

3

The Direct Payments can be managed by an independent person too late tonight for me to find the relevant paragraph) Under these circumstances it should be perfectly legal.

4

From the main DP thread :

The Care and Support (Direct Payments) Regulations 2014



Conditions which must apply to the making of direct payments
3.—(1) Direct payments must be made subject to the condition that they must not be used to pay any person mentioned in paragraph (3) to meet the needs of the adult in respect of whose needs the direct payment is made.

(2) Except that, if the local authority considers it is necessary to do so, direct payments may be used to pay a person mentioned in paragraph (3)—

(a)to meet the care needs of the adult; or

(b)to provide administrative and management support or services for the purpose of enabling a person to whom the direct payments are made to—

(i)comply with legal obligations arising from the making of and use of the direct payment, or

(ii)monitor the receipt and expenditure of the direct payment.

(3) The persons referred to in paragraph (1) are—

(a)the spouse or civil partner of the adult;

(b)a person who lives with the adult as if their spouse or civil partner;

(c)a person living in the same household as the adult who is the adult’s—

(i)parent or parent-in-law,

(ii)son or daughter,

(iii)son-in-law or daughter-in-law,

(iv)stepson or stepdaughter,

(v)brother or sister,

(vi)aunt or uncle, or

(vii)grandparent;

(d)the spouse or civil partner of any person specified in sub-paragraph (c) who lives in the same household as the adult; and

(e)a person who lives with any person specified in sub-paragraph (c) as if that person’s spouse or civil partner.

(4) A direct payment made under section 32 must be made subject to the condition that the authorised person(1) must—

(a)notify the local authority if the authorised person reasonably believes that the adult no longer lacks the capacity to request the making of direct payments; and

(b)if paragraph (5) applies, obtain—

(i)an enhanced criminal record certificate issued under section 113B (enhanced criminal record certificate) of the Police Act 1997(2), or

(ii)verification that a satisfactory certificate of that type under that Act has been obtained,

in respect of any person from whom a service in respect of which a direct payment is made is secured.

(5) This paragraph applies if the authorised person is—

(a)a body corporate;

(b)an unincorporated body of persons;

(c)an individual who is not a person mentioned in paragraph (3); or

(d)an individual who is not a friend of the adult who is involved in the provision of care for the adult. >



Conditions which may apply to the making of direct payments

4.—(1) A local authority may make a direct payment subject to other conditions.

(2) The conditions referred to in paragraph (1) may, in particular, require that—

(a)the needs may not be met by a particular person;

(b)the adult or authorised person (in the case of direct payments made under section 32 of the Act) must provide information to the authority.

(3) The conditions referred to in paragraph (1) may not require—

(a)the needs of the adult to be met by any particular person; or

(b)information to be provided to the authority—

(i)more frequently and in more detail than is reasonably required by the authority for the purpose of enabling it to ascertain that—

(aa)making direct payments is an appropriate way to meet the needs in question, or

(bb)the conditions upon which it is made are complied with, or

(ii)in a format which is not reasonably practicable for the adult or authorised person to provide. >


Analysis of the above follows as detailed in the main thread.

5

presumably one of the “exceptional circumstances” would be if the person needing care has the temerity to want to sleep in a double bed with his or her lifelong partner. Whatever happened to the human right to family life? Wasn’t one of the big problems with slavery splitting up families against their will?