PBAS

Direct Payments/PHB Services

Personal Health Budgets and Direct Payment

What are PHBs, direct payments and CCGs? And how can PBAS help?

A personal health budget is given by local councils to help those who are eligible for social care and support. This includes children in receipt of continuing care and adults eligible for NHS Continuing Healthcare, including people who are disabled or have long-term conditions.
PHBs aren’t new money being given but rather an alternative way to spend health funding in order to meet the needs of an individual.
For someone to start receiving PHBs, an assessment will need to be requested by the council to establish the needs of the person, how much the care will cost and how much they can afford on their own.
A personalised care and support plan sets out how the budget will be spent. A personal health budget can be used for a number of things, including equipment, personal care and therapies. However, there are some restrictions on how this money can be used.
For those eligible for a personal health budget, they have the option to manage the money as a direct payment, notional budget or third-party budget. Or there can even be a mix of approaches used as well.
A direct payment is a sum of money paid directly to an individual so a person can buy and arrange their own care. This provides support allowing them to act as independently as possible, while providing more control, choice and flexibility.
With direct payments, recipients need to retain records and keep up with accounting tasks for how the personal health budget is spent. Additionally, if a personal assistant or carer is employed, the recipient will also be classed as an employer, which brings forward certain responsibilities and obligations.
Clinical commissioning groups, which are the NHS organisations commissioning local health services, are responsible for planning and paying for most local health services. The groups also make decisions about who can have a PHB outside of the legal rights.
CCGs usually start with a checklist tool as an initial assessment to decide whether to refer the person to a full continuing health care assessment. If the applicant meets the criteria, a PHB is planned and agreed between the individual, or their representative, and the local CCG.
At PBAS, we support people in receipt of personal health budgets. Our services are an alternative to direct payments. We want to make this as easy as possible, so leave the accounting, payroll, recruiting and HR to us. Get in touch for more information.

How We Can Help?

At PBAS, we provide a number of services on behalf of direct payment recipients. We give help, support and advice to vulnerable people and provide payroll, managed accounts, HR and recruitment services.
The direct payment recipient will retain full flexibility and control, while being confident that they are meeting any of your responsibilities. We can also work in partnership with your local CCG and can help you understand how direct payments work
This provides people with more power to direct their own care in the way that is best for them, while not having to worry about the obligations that come with a personal health budget. And we can even tailor our support to meet any individual needs.

Who We Can Help

PBAS helps adults and children receiving personal health budgets and direct payments manage responsibilities and obligations that come with this. We can ensure the process is seamless for those who are transitioning to direct payments.
On behalf of our clients, we provide any information that is required for direct payments. This includes certified reconciliations.
We also have experience working directly with and alongside local authorities. We understand what they need. When there are safeguarding concerns, we will alert the local authorities through the appropriate procedures
We can work with local authorities on their aspects of personal health budgets and direct payments. This remit of work involves assisting with service use agreements, procedures and resource allocation systems.

Who We Are

PBAS are accounting, bookkeeping and payroll experts and have experience with handling personal health budgets and direct payments and working with recipients, local authorities and service providers.
We can ensure recipients get the most out of their budgets and direct payments and take the stress and worry away, while ensuring local authorities get the documents that they need and that recipients meet all of their obligations.
Get in touch or request a call back for more information on the work we do and the services we offer.

Services Offered

At PBAS, we provide a number of services for individuals receiving personal health budgets (PHBs) or direct payments.
We want to make this easy, so you can focus on your health and wellbeing and don’t have to fret about keeping up with the obligations that come with PHBs or direct payments.
We offer the following services:
If you end up employing a personal assistant or carer with your PHB, there are a number of responsibilities that come with this as you will be considered an employer. First and foremost, you’ll need to make sure you’re paying staff on time. We offer payroll services, so we can take care of the entire payroll process.

We can also help you register as an employer with HMRC and operate a PAYE scheme. Then, we can process employee timesheets whether on a weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis and issue payslips and P60s, while keeping tax records.

We can monitor the timesheets with your care package and help with any payroll-related issues. Additionally, we can take care of PAYE calculations for tax and national insurance and assist with enrolling in a pension scheme.
We offer a full financial management service for direct payment recipients. This includes:
  • Setting up an account in your name
  • Taking care of agreed payments
  • Keeping a record of all the incomings and outgoings
  • Calculating employees pay and sending payslips
  • Providing a statement showing all transactions
  • Submitting tax returns and paying amount due to HMRC

We ensure direct payment recipients comply with all requirements set out within the agreement.

We will act on behalf of yourself with HMRC and your local council. And we can help with any payroll issues and advice, including ensuring you’re abiding by statutory sick pay, holiday pay and maternity pay. We can provide regular statements and account balances and complete reconciliations, a requirement by local authorities.

You will still have full control over your care package. We just manage and monitor the funds on your behalf. This allows you to have additional support with your direct payments.
If you wish to employ a personal assistant or carer using your personal health budget or direct payment, you will be considered an employer. We can ensure you undertake the obligations and responsibilities that come with this.

For starters, we can support you with recruiting the right person for the role and can work with you at your own pace. We can provide advice on employment contracts and job descriptions and can even secure a DBS check for a prospective employee.
We can provide advice, guidance and support when it comes to personal health budgets and direct payments and recruiting and hiring a PA or carer. We can ensure you understand what your budget can be used towards and how direct payments work.

We can give a helping hand each step of the way and provide tailored support to match your wants and needs. For more information on our services, book a call with us today!