Personal budgets

Your personal budget is the money you need to put your support plan into action. More and more people are taking their personal budget as a direct payment - so they can manage their own support.

What rules are there for spending my personal budget?
Do I have to manage the money myself?
How do we work out your personal budget?
Where does the money come from?

Further details on personal budgets are at the bottom of this page.

What rules are there for spending my personal budget?

Your personal budget can only be used to meet the agreed needs and goals set out in your support plan
It must be legal and not bring the council into disrepute
It cannot be used for anything that exposes you or someone else to serious physical or financial risk
It cannot be used for gambling (including bingo)
It cannot be used for things that would be paid for by the NHS, such as health related treatments
It cannot be used to pay a family member living in the same household unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Do I have to manage the money myself?

You can have your personal budget in different ways, including:

Direct payment: you spend and manage the money yourself. This gives you the most freedom to be creative. SUGGEST is an organisation that can support you with this.

Virtual budget: we (the council) arrange and manage the money on your behalf. We will usually spend it on services that we commission.

Paid to a third party: someone else such as a friend, relative or a Trust manages and spends the money on your behalf. There are different ways that this can happen and a more detailed explanation is at the bottom of the page.

Broker fund: you pay another organisation to arrange and spend the money on your behalf.

You can also use a combination of the above methods.

How do we work out your personal budget?

We use a system called the Resource Allocation System (RAS) to work out your personal budget. It means that everyone should have a fair amount of money based on their assessment and support plan. A calculator based on your answers to the assessment will award points which determine how much money you will be allocated. We monitor and adjust how the calculator is working and the amount of money given out over time to make sure the system remains fair.

Where does the money come from?

Your personal budget is made up from money that we allocate to you and money that you (have to pay)yourself. The amount that you have to pay towards your personal budget is based on your finances.