When paying for your care, you can pay via either Personal or Private Budget. A Private Budget is money that you or your family personally own and are paying with. A Personal Budget is something that may be offered by your Local Authority following a recent assessment, and will be sent to you in order to give you control of the care and support you receive. There are different types of Personal Budgets:

Direct Payment – With a Direct Payment, the money is paid directly into your bank account on a regular basis, and it is you who are then in charge of organising all aspects of care. This includes sourcing carers, or a care company, and making payments.

Individual Service Fund – With an ISF, you can still decide who you receive your care off, but the council/local authority will take charge of paying the fees to the carer/company. This might be preferable if you don’t want the pressure of paying yourself.

Personal Health Budget – This is agreed between yourself and your local clinical commissioning group, and is allocated to support your health and well-being. You are more likely to receive a PHB if you have a long-term illness or disabilities.