Direct Payments -council clawing money back...

[notparanoidiftheyreouttogetyou]

My son receives direct payments, 5 hours a week. It was supposed to be 4 hours a week and 6 in holidays but they made it 5 a week for simplicity's sake.

We started getting DPs last summer, and the CRB checks took a while to come through, so we went for a while without spending some of the money. However, that has come in useful when there are extra sessions needed (DPs are used to support a drama activity that has multiple extra rehearsals when it's close to show time) and I was also saving up some extra hours for the summer holidays, when we really do need a break from each other for more than an afternoon. Also, was hoping for son's 1:1 to attend an activity weekend with him, which would be lots and lots of hours.

However, DP support service have written to tell me that excess money has to be returned after an audit. They said I should be aware of this but it was not in the contract I signed and I can't find any mention of it on the council website.

Is this normal and can they do this? What annoys me is that there's 'extra' built into the payment schedule anyway to build up extra for the holidays, so there will always be an excess except after the summer holidays.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

Yes it's normal. We used to be able to hoard 4 weeks worth of payments but they've now reduced that to 2 weeks.

Never heard of not being allowed any carry over.

I'd contact them them and ask them to reconsider.

We are allowed ( at present) to hold up to 4 weeks extra DPS plus any money owing which allows for 'holiday hoarding'. When we first got DPs there was discretionary flexibility (I was very ill at the time so never quite knew what was ahead of me - the SW set up the initial extra holding power). It is certainly worth ringing your SW and writing to the DPs department to request holding more in hand in readyness for holidays etc. They might have greater flexibity if needed- and if the dps have been averaged over the year then you have grounds to augue to store up more after all the holidays do need far more respite hours. Its also worth thinking about when to pay bills if you have flexibilty at all.

Probably tied to the end of the financial year - we had a long period without help and have been allowed to hold it to try and spend it before year end but then will have to take it back

ive had up to 10 months of money in my account for years and its never been asked for.