Personal budgets
Personal budgets (also know as 'individual budgets') help you take control of your own social care budget, manage your own support and choose the services that suit you best. This means you are at the centre of the planning process as you are the best person to understand your own needs.
Personal budgets will:
- provide a clear, up-front idea about how much money there is for your support
- let you use the money in a way that best suits your own needs and situation
- provide support to you to help you plan what you want and to organise it.
Find out if you could receive self-directed support.
How much money will I get?
The size of the budget allocated to you is worked out from the answers you give on the personal budget questionnaire.
The personal budget questionnaire is designed to help you think about the support you need to lead an independent life. There are 12 questions. Each question will look at the different areas of your life, for example:
- managing your health
- caring for yourself
- communicating with and understanding others
- the care you receive from friends or family.
The completed form will be used to provide you with an estimate of the amount of money that you will need to get that support. This is called your personal budget. Once you have received an indication of the amount of money that will be available to you, you will then need to complete a support plan.
Your personal budget is to be spent on the needs identified in your support plan and the personal budget questionnaire.
How do I receive my personal budget?
There are different ways in which you can receive and use your personal budget. This can be done by:
- taking the allocation as a cash payment known as a Direct Payment, to enable you to chose and purchase your own support and services, or
- allowing the council to buy the services on your behalf, whilst still choosing how your support needs are met, or
- choosing to do a bit of both and request the council to buy some services on your behalf and take the remaining money as a Direct Payment.
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Email this pageLast modified by: Dawn Rowe on 10/03/2009