Personal Budgets and Direct Payments
You Decide!
A Personal Budget is an amount of money allocated to you by Suffolk County Council to pay for your care and support. The amount you receive is based on an assessment of your needs, and you can choose to receive this in the form of a Direct Payment.
Receiving Direct Payments means that you will be given the funding in order to make your own care arrangements, rather than having services arranged on your behalf. Direct Payments are a way of having more choice and control over how you receive your support, but they come with extra responsibility (such as becoming an employer).
You can then choose, for example, whether you would like to employ your own Personal Assistant or use a care agency. You can decide if any of the services SIL offers – such as recruitment, payroll and holding account – would assist you to manage your support.
On the other hand, you may feel that you do not wish to take on the responsibility of a Direct Payment, and decide to have a service arranged for you instead. Having an arranged or ‘direct’ service can sometimes limit your choices, so you can combine the two! You may choose to have some of your support as a direct service and the rest as a Direct Payment.
SIL’s services are also available to you if you pay for your care from your own funds.
