Local authorities can give payments to parents to pay for the services their child needs. Your income and ability to pay may be assessed.  

Direct payments

Local authorities can give parents payments to pay for the services that social services has assessed them to be in need of.  These are called ‘direct payments’ and are available to both adults and children. Direct payments are seen as a very positive move for parents, for many reasons. They can give people the choice to be flexible about when, how and where they receive services, such as respite. In areas where perhaps there is a lack of formal respite services for autistic people, a parent can actively seek to employ their own carer and negotiate with them the help they need.

Personal budgets

Children with disabilities in receipt of social care services are entitled to a personal budget. Under this system families will be told how much social care money is available to them and will then be able to spend this money on support and services to meet their child’s individual needs. Families will be able to choose whether to receive an actual budget and manage their child’s finances through a direct payment, a virtual budget where the money stays with the local authority or a mixture of both. For some families who are happy with the services that they currently receive, this will just be a paper exercise and no changes to their support will be needed. For others it gives more choice and control over how to meet their child’s agreed needs.

There are seven steps to getting a personal budget:

1. work out how much money your child will get
2. make their plan
3. get their plan agreed
4. organise their money
5. organise their support
6. live life
7. review how their support is working

Charging for services

If your child is under 16 years of age, you may be charged for any services offered to your child. These charges will be means tested so income and savings may be taken into account. A local authority should only assess your income once it has decided which services to offer, so your ability to pay should not influence decisions about what your child needs.

If your child is 16 years of age or older, their income and savings will be assessed to see if they have to pay a charge for the services provided to them.