Direct payments question hourly rate for worker

[grumpyoldeeyore]

Yeah! We're getting some direct payments. I'm hoping to get Felix's carer from nursery to help out evening / weekend - how much will she actually get after tax etc? Social worker said £8 an hour but is that before or after tax taken off?

I pay £9 an hour and this works out as £7 an hour after tax/NI.

How do you go about getting direct payments? Can you tell me the process if you dont mind? Many thanks!

Contact social services and ask for an initial assessment for a disabled child and a carers assessment for you. They take some info over the phone eg what benefits etc and then send someone out to do an initial assessment. If they think there are services you can access they come back and do a core assessment. We were looking for some time to spend with our older children doing activities at weekend or a bit of help after school with DS3 (ASD) so we could do homework etc with the older two. He was new to the job and keen so we got lucky. I think he will recommend 4 hours a week to start with and then he says we can get more during school hols when too much to have all 3 at home every day. It can be hard to say what extra help they need (DS3 is just 3) than another child the same age but we explained how he can't tolerate same activities as others so they lose out - needs more supervision - having no family support was another key factor - and also DS3 would not go to grandparents etc even when they did come to help. He ruled out respite on basis that DS would need a familiar carer (so nursery staff perfect) and offered DP straight off.