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Direct Payments
Our Direct Payments service, run by our Suffolk Independent Living team, exists to support people with their Personal Budget. A Personal Budget is an amount of money allocated to someone by a funder, such as a local authority or the NHS, to pay for care and support. The amount you receive is based on an assessment of your needs, and you can choose to receive this in the form of a Direct Payment.
Receiving a Direct Payment means that you will be given the funding to make your own care arrangements, rather than having services arranged on your behalf. Direct Payments are a way of having more choice and control over how you receive your support, but they come with extra responsibility, such as becoming an employer.
Once your Personal Budget has been allocated, you can then choose whether you would like to employ your own Personal Assistant / Support Worker or use a care agency. We understand that the thought of employing your own Personal Assistant can seem like a daunting task, and so if you choose to go down this route we offer several packages that can support you with this decision.
Contact us on 01473 603876
Our Packages
Employment Package
This provides support with employment set-up and ongoing employment matters, plus a payroll service. Full employment set up; including advice on how much you can afford to pay your worker; set-up of your own PAYE scheme and then acting as your agent with HMRC; registering your workers with HMRC; providing all legal employment documentation and information regarding employer's liability insurance; requesting references and support with Disclosure and Barring Service forms. We will also provide a full on going payroll service, including four-weekly wage slips, holiday, sickness and other statutory entitlements, end-of-year information and close the payroll when the worker leaves. We can also provide you with employee management support, including employment law advice, changes to contracts, disciplinary issues and sending out replacement timesheets etc. The support will be provided over the phone, email and our website but you may also access 1 visit per year from a SIL adviser (up to an hour in length) if required. Additional visits are charged separately.
Employment and Recruitment Package Plus
The full, personalised support. Everything included in the Employment and Recruitment Support Package, plus face-to-face support with up to four home visits per year. All support and advice is provided by your own dedicated adviser, who will also provide you with bi-monthly courtesy calls to check everything is running smoothly. We will also liaise with Suffolk County Council on your behalf, as required.
Assisted Account
Options for holding your Direct Payment. This account is for Direct Payment recipients who do not employ their own workers. As with the Holding Account, we will set up an account to receive your Direct Payment money from Suffolk County Council, and make payments at your request. However, we will also alert you if your account balance falls below an amount agreed by you with the support of your allocated adviser, who will also be available to offer support and advice with respect to using the account. We will provide information to Suffolk County Council in order to satisfy their monitoring requirements as and when requested.
Employment and Recruitment Package
This provides the same as the Employment Package, plus recruitment support up to three times per year. Everything that is included in the Employment package, plus support to recruit your own worker(s) up to three times for year, including writing your own job descriptions, placing advert in local media, corresponding with applicants, shortlisting and arranging of interviews. We will also inform unsuccessful candidates, as well as keeping records of the recruitment and employment documentation.
Holding Account
Options for holding your Direct Payment. We will set up a holding account to receive your Direct Payment money from Suffolk County Council which is personal to you. We will then make payments as requested by you and maintain records of what comes in and what you spend your money on. So you can maintain control of your Direct Payment, we will send you four-weekly statements detailing what you have spent and what you have left in your account. This account can be linked to a payroll service and will enable us to make payments directly to your workers and HMRC. We will also liaise with Suffolk County Council with respect to your Direct Payments monitoring as requested.
Payroll Information
Frequently Asked Questions
Equal Lives provides a payroll service to support you to employ your own Personal Assistants. We will set up the employer on our systems, which also includes setting them up as an employer with HMRC. If you give us consent, we will act as your agent with HMRC. PAs will get paid every four weeks via our payroll. If they are currently paid differently to this, you will need to inform them of the change and give them appropriate notice. Employers are assigned a payroll colour relevant for their workers. You will have a deadline that the timesheet will need to be submitted by and a date the payments will be made if we hold your Direct Payment funds, or the date you need to pay the worker if you hold your own funds. It is your responsibility to check that the timesheets are completed accurately and submitted to us on time.
How does the payroll work?
How do my workers get paid?
You will need to tell us the hours your worker has worked for the relevant 4-week period. We need to know the hours per week and the pay rate. We will also need to know if they have taken holiday or been off sick (or any other leave such as maternity leave). You can complete a timesheet and send it in to us by post or email. Or you can just submit hours to us directly in an email, as long as it is clear how many hours each worker has worked and what their pay rate is for the four weeks you are submitting. The email address to use is timesheets@equallives.org.uk If we hold the funds for you then we will transfer the money from your holding account to the PA’s bank account directly. We will also make payments to HMRC and to pension providers. If you hold the money yourself, we will send you details of what needs to be paid and you should pay your worker in-line with the payroll dates.
When will my workers timesheets be paid?
When you join our services, you will be given a list of payroll dates. Payrolls are run every four weeks and as a general rule your timesheet needs to be with us by 4.30pm on a Monday, ready to be paid on the “pay-day Friday”. However, this will change around bank holidays, especially at Christmas and New Year. You can download a dates list for your payroll below.
How will I know you have my timesheet?
The best way to send a timesheet is to email it directly to timesheets@equallives.org.uk and you will receive a confirmation that your email has been received.
What if my timesheet is late?
If your timesheet is late, we will pay this the following week. However, you can contact us on 01508 491222 and we will try and pay late timesheets where we can if this proves difficult for you. However, we cannot guarantee these will be paid if they are late.
If I send invoices or expenses to Equal Lives when can I expect these to be paid?
Any invoices received before 4.30pm on Thursday are paid the following Friday. For example, an invoice received on Thursday 1st May will be paid on Friday 9th May. You must ensure you have checked that what is being submitted to us is correct and you have signed the invoice or expenses sheet to show you have checked this. If you are funded by the NHS in Norfolk you will need to submit all receipts for expenses along with your expense forms. The invoice will also need to be approved by the CCG prior to us being able to make this payment, this could result in the invoices or expenses payment being delayed.
If you're based in Norfolk, you can use our payroll services. We run payroll on a four-weekly basis for people who employ their own Personal Assistant(s).
To find out more about this service, please fill in a contact form or email us below. Alternatively, call our Payroll team on 01508 491222.
Contact Form
Email the Payroll Team