Continuation of Arranging your own Support - Employment Services
This information sheet is for people who want to arrange their own support using a Personal Budgets Direct Payment. This may involve making arrangements with an agency or employing your own staff.
Personal Budget Direct Payments are not a replacement of income and therefore do not affect any Benefits.
You can have your Personal Budgets Direct Payment paid to you or you can ask for it to be paid to someone else on your behalf. This is called a Managed PB Direct Payment.
Purchasing Agency Support
You can ask your Case Manager for a list of agencies that have a contract with Bath & North East Somerset Council.
Most of them have agreed to charge Personal Budgets Direct Payment users at Social Services rates, which may be different from the rate they use for private clients. This is something you should check with them when you are making your arrangements.
You do not have to use an agency that has a contract with Social Services. However, we recommend that you check that any agency you use is registered with the Care Quality Commission.
(Tel: 03000 616161 Website: http://www.cqc.org.uk/)
Employing Personal Assistants Abiding by Employment Law
If you are employing Personal Assistants (PA’s), you need to make sure that you are abiding by Employment Law. You need to decide how you will do things like:
- recruiting staff
- paying salaries and PAYE on salaries
- paying employer and public liability insurance
- providing employment contracts
- providing training for your staff
This is a quite a complex area and we strongly recommend that you get specialist advice. Please see Employment Support Services information.
You can either advertise for PA’s or they can be someone who you know: like a friend, relative or neighbour. However, they cannot be your partner (married, unmarried or in a civil partnership) or an immediate family member (parent, parent-in-law, aunt, uncle, grandparent, son, daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, step son or daughter, brother, sister or the spouse or partner of any of the above) if that person also lives with you (unless Social Services agrees that there are exceptional circumstances).
We recommend that you take up Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) checks and references for staff that you want to employ. Social Services may require the provision of CRB checks in some cases. (Tel: 0870 90 90 811)
CRB checks can be organised through a support service or Social Services. If you would like Social Services to organise a CRB check please contact Human Resource Department within Bath & North East Somerset Council for information on the cost. The cost of a CRB check should be included in the Support Plan Costing.
Set-up Costs
You will need to pay for some services like insurance and recruitment before you employ your PA. You can pay for these privately and then pay yourself back out of your Personal Budget when it commences. Alternatively, you can arrange for some of your PB to be paid to you upfront to cover these initial costs.
You must arrange employer’s insurance cover if you are an employer and this should be included in your Support Plan and the Support Plan Costing Sheet. Please see suggested Insurance companies under the heading ‘Employment Support Services’.
Self-Employed Personal Assistant
There are rules about whether someone is considered self-employed for tax purposes. It is HM Revenue and Customs that decides whether someone is self-employed and not the individual themselves. As a rule, they would consider most people providing care as employees.
This is a complex area. We do not recommend that you use self-employed Personal Assistants. However, if you do, you need to get advice and check their self-employed status.
You should read the leaflet produced by HM Revenue and Customs ‘IR56 - Employed or self-employed? A guide to employment status for tax and National Insurance contributions’. This is available by contacting them on 0845 9000 404 or going to their website: www.hmrc.gov.uk.
Paying Expenses Paying Personal Assistants’ Expenses
There may be occasions when you want to use some of your PB to pay expenses to your Personal Assistant. If so, this needs to be agreed in your Support Plan and clearly specified in your PA’s contract of employment.
It is extremely important only to reimburse the out-of-pocket expenses. Money over and above out-of-pocket expenses is regarded as income by HM Revenue and Customs, and is therefore taxable.
We recommend that you get relevant information and advice before coming to any agreement about expenses with your Personal Assistant.
Your Employment Support Service provider will be able to give more information or you can contact HM Revenues and Customs. Tel. 0845 010 9000 Website: www.hmrc.gov.uk
Paying expenses to Volunteers
A Volunteer is defined as someone who gives their time to help an PB user. They are not employed by you but their expenses can be paid from your PB.
In general, any reasonable expenses incurred as part of voluntary work can be reimbursed. This can include:
- travel to and from the place of volunteering.
- travel whilst volunteering.
- meals taken whilst volunteering.
- care of dependants, including children, during volunteering.
- postage, phone calls, stationery etc.
- cost of protective clothing/special equipment etc.
Volunteers in receipt of benefits are entitled to receive out-of-pocket expenses only. If they receive more than their actual expenses the nature of their volunteering may be called into question.
Money over and above out of pocket expenses is regarded as income by HM Revenue and Customs and is therefore taxable. The entire sum a volunteer received would be taxed, not just the portion above the actual expense. It is likely too that HM Revenue and Customs would treat such ‘volunteers’ as they would employees and expect them be paid through PAYE.
Expenses payments that exceed volunteers’ actual costs may be regarded as a payment in return for the work they have carried out. This could be regarded as a contract by a tribunal or similar body, giving the volunteers the same rights as workers or employees – including the national minimum wage.
For all these reasons it is extremely important that you only reimburse actual out-of-pocket expenses on presentation of a valid VAT receipt.
How to reimburse expenses
You must ask for copies of all receipts, bus tickets etc. It is very important that you keep these as we may ask to see them when your PB Account is audited. It makes sense to create a simple claim form that you can keep with copies of the documentation. There is an example form attached to this leaflet.
Expenses should be reimbursed by cheque unless otherwise agreed in your Support Plan.
Limits to Expenses
Social Services have limits on the amount of money that can be reimbursed as expenses. You can only reimburse the actual costs incurred.
The maximum amounts that can normally be claimed are described below
Travel
The cheapest form of public transport should be used wherever possible but only if it is appropriate and most practical
HM Revenue and Customs sets a rate for the reimbursement of car travel expenses. They are set at a level to take into account vehicle depreciation and other running costs as well as fuel. Their approved mileage rates 2008-2009 are:
| Cars and vans and motorcycles |
46.9p per mile for the first 8,500 miles, 13.7p per mile over 8,500 |
| Bicycles |
40p per mile |
Meals
| Breakfast |
actual cost up to a maximum of £5.00/day |
| Lunch |
actual cost up to a maximum of £7.00/day |
| Dinner |
actual cost up to a maximum of £9.00/day |
| Light Refreshments |
actual cost up to a maximum of £5.00/day |
Accommodation
Actual cost up to a maximum of £55 for bed and breakfast
Actual cost up to a maximum of £70 for dinner, bed and breakfast
Childcare
Actual cost up to a maximum of £4 per hour
Further Information
This information sheet has been produced using information from Volunteering England, who offer advice on a wide range of issues relating to volunteering. They have an advice line and a website.
For more information, please contact: Volunteering England Information Service email: information@volunteeringengland.org
Freephone/textphone: 0800 028 3304 (M-F, 9.30 – 5.30)
Web: www.volunteering.org.uk/
HM Revenues and Customs. Tel: 0845 010 9000 Website: www.hmrc.gov.uk
| This document/publication/leaflet about ‘Arranging your own Support’ can be made available in a range of community languages, large print, Braille, on tape, electronic and accessible formats from the Information Officer (information_officer@bathnes.gov.uk) - Tel (01225 477983) Fax (01225 396489) Minicom (01225 477043) |