Written and reviewed by the Oath Healthcare care team · CQC-regulated provider · Last reviewed: 11 June 2026
The council has agreed to fund your mum’s care. Good news — until you discover the care arrives at times that suit the contractor, from a different stranger each week. What most families are never clearly told: you don’t have to accept the council’s contracted provider. Direct payments in social care let you take the funding as money and choose who delivers the care yourself.
Short on time? Direct payments are your council-funded personal budget paid to you (usually onto a prepaid card) instead of to the council’s contracted agency. Anyone eligible for council-funded care can ask for them. You can use them to hire the CQC-regulated home care agency of your choice, employ a personal assistant, or buy respite breaks. You keep simple records; the council checks in. It’s choice, with paperwork — and the paperwork is smaller than people fear.
What are direct payments in social care?
When a council agrees to fund care after a care needs assessment, it sets a personal budget — the weekly amount your care plan costs. The default is that the council spends that budget for you, through whichever agencies hold its contracts. A direct payment is the alternative the Care Act 2014 guarantees: the budget is paid to you, and you arrange the care.
In plain English: same money, your choice of carer. For families who want the same two carers every week, visits timed around real routines, or a specific domiciliary care agency they trust, this is the mechanism.
Who can get direct payments?
- Anyone assessed as eligible for council-funded care and support who requests them — the council can only refuse in limited circumstances.
- If the person lacks mental capacity, a family member or friend can receive and manage the payments on their behalf as an “authorised person.”
- Family carers with their own assessed support needs can receive direct payments too — often used for respite.
Means-testing works exactly as it does for any council-arranged care — covered in full in our paying for care at home guide. You may contribute towards the budget from income; the direct payment changes who chooses, not who pays.
What you can spend direct payments on — and what you can’t
| Allowed (if it meets needs in your care plan) | Not allowed |
|---|---|
| A CQC-regulated home care agency of your choice | Anything outside the agreed care plan |
| Employing a personal assistant (PA) directly | Ordinary household bills, rent or food |
| Respite breaks and day services | Permanent residential care (different rules apply) |
| Equipment and small items the plan agrees | Paying a spouse/partner or close family member living in the same household — except where the council agrees it’s necessary |
Agency or personal assistant? The choice inside the choice
| CQC-regulated agency | Employing a PA yourself | |
|---|---|---|
| You become an employer? | No — the agency employs, trains, insures and covers absence | Yes — payroll, pension, insurance, cover when they’re ill |
| Regulation | CQC-inspected, DBS-checked staff, supervised | You arrange checks and training yourself |
| Flexibility | High — hours adjust with needs | Highest — but fragile if the PA leaves |
| Typical cost | From £25/hour | Lower hourly rate, plus employer costs and admin |
Both are legitimate. Families choosing an agency get the choice without becoming an employer; families employing PAs usually use a council-funded payroll service to handle the admin. Some do both — a PA for companionship, an agency for personal care.
How to set up direct payments: 6 steps
- Have the care needs assessment — eligibility comes first.
- Ask for direct payments explicitly when the care plan is being agreed. You can also switch later — existing council-arranged care can convert.
- Agree the personal budget — check it’s enough to buy the planned hours at real local rates; you can challenge a budget that doesn’t stretch to the plan.
- Sign the direct payment agreement — most councils now pay onto a prepaid card that does the record-keeping mostly by itself.
- Choose your provider — check CQC rating, DBS-checked staff, carer continuity, a named local manager and published prices.
- Keep it simple and reviewable — invoices and statements filed, an annual review with the council, and the budget adjusts as needs change.
The honest pros and cons
- Pro: you choose the provider, the carers, and the visit times — continuity becomes possible.
- Pro: budgets can flex creatively — respite one month, extra visits the next, within the plan.
- Con: light admin — receipts, statements, an occasional audit letter.
- Con: if the budget is set low, you may top up to afford the agency you want — challenge budgets that can’t buy the planned care locally.
And the check that comes before all of this: if your relative’s needs are primarily health needs, NHS Continuing Healthcare replaces the entire council route — no means test, no contribution. Rule it in or out first.
What direct payments look like in practice
Before: the council arranged Joan’s care through its contracted provider. Thirty-minute calls, timed by the round, a different face most days — and for someone with early dementia, every unfamiliar face is a small alarm. Her daughter asked the social worker one question: “Can we take this as direct payments instead?”
After: the same personal budget lands on a prepaid card each month. The family chose their own CQC-regulated agency, agreed hour-long visits at 8.30am and 6pm — the times Joan actually gets up and winds down — and the rota names the same two carers every week. The agency invoices monthly; the card statement is the record-keeping; the council reviews once a year. Total extra admin for the family: filing twelve invoices.
Nothing about Joan’s entitlement changed. What changed is that the people walking through her door now know which mug is hers. That — not the paperwork — is what direct payments are for.
Frequently asked questions
What are direct payments in social care?
Direct payments are your council-funded personal budget paid directly to you, so you can arrange and pay for your own care and support instead of receiving the council’s contracted service.
Can I use direct payments to pay a home care agency?
Yes. Hiring the CQC-regulated home care agency of your choice is one of the most common uses of direct payments, and you don’t become an employer when you do.
Can direct payments be used to pay family members?
Generally not for a spouse, partner or close relative living in the same household, unless the council agrees it is necessary to meet needs. Paying relatives who live elsewhere is sometimes possible – ask the council.
Are direct payments means-tested?
The payments themselves aren’t a benefit – they’re your assessed personal budget. The usual social care financial assessment decides whether you contribute towards that budget from income or savings.
Do I have to manage the money myself?
No. Prepaid cards handle most record-keeping automatically, councils fund payroll services for people employing PAs, and an authorised person can manage everything for someone who lacks capacity.
Can I switch from council-arranged care to direct payments?
Yes, at any time. Ask your social worker or the adult social care team to convert your existing package – the budget stays the same; who chooses the provider changes.
Thinking of using direct payments to choose your own agency?
Families use direct payments to choose Oath every week — we invoice in the format councils expect, and we’ll happily talk you through the switch before you commit to anything.
- 📞 Cambridge: 01223 755887
- 📞 Redbridge & East London: 020 3949 4333
- 📞 South Essex: 01268 206550
- 🌐 Or start with the free NHS Continuing Healthcare eligibility checker
We’re CQC Rated Good, family-run, and we publish our prices — visiting care from £25/hour, live-in care from £1,100/week. Same carers, times that suit your routine: the things direct payments exist to make possible.