Direct payments

You can choose to receive your direct payment into a prepayment card account. The council can create the account on your behalf as well as review the spend and activity.

Or you can choose to open a separate bank account to receive your direct payments, and submit financial returns and bank statements to be reviewed by relevant council staff.

If you need to help to manage the money, you can get a friend, family member or someone else who has authority to act on your behalf to help you.

If you do not have someone who can assist you with this, you can request for a managed direct payment account. The council can set up this up with a third party provider who will hold your direct payment in a separate bank account on your behalf and use those funds to pay service invoices, Personal Assistants or any other agreed expenditure as per your care and support plan. They will also submit bank statements to be reviewed by relevant council staff. There is an additional charge for this service, but you can pay for that using part of your direct payment.

What a prepayment card account is and how it works

• It is an online account that the council can create on your behalf and payments are made directly into the account by the council
• You can use the online account to set up standing orders, direct debits or bank transfers or you can use the card to pay for services by ‘chip and pin’ or using the card account details
• You can use the account to make either one-off or regular payments
• You will only be able to make purchases when there are sufficient funds in the account
• Your account and card will be set up for you by EML Payments on behalf of the council
• The account and card can be set up in your name or a Nominated or Authorised person on your behalf
• You can check all your spend activity online and this information is retained and available to print at your convenience
• The spend activity can be accessed by the Purchasing and Personal Budget Team, therefore bank statements and financial returns do not need to be submitted 
• Any funding that needs to be returned to the council can be done so via transfer rather than having to write a cheque
• The account can be closed and the card can be cancelled at any time if needed.