Direct paymentsScottish Borders
Direct payments in Scottish Borders
If the council has agreed to pay towards care at home, you can take the money as a direct payment and choose who provides the care. A direct payment can usually pay a self-employed carer, on the council's conditions. Below is what the council publishes about its rates and rules, and what an hour of care costs near you.
21 self-employed carers within about 45 minutes of Scottish Borders
What the council pays
Direct payment rates in Scottish Borders
Scottish Borders Council does not publish its direct payment rates anywhere we could find. Your budget is set in your support plan, from the cost of meeting your eligible needs less anything you are assessed to pay yourself. Ask the council which hourly rate it used, because that decides how many hours the budget buys.
Choosing your carer
Paying a self-employed carer in Scottish Borders
Direct payments in Scottish Borders work under the Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013, where a direct payment is Option 1. A direct payment can usually pay a self-employed carer your family has chosen, as well as a personal assistant you employ or an agency. We could not find Scottish Borders Council's own wording on self-employed carers, so ask the direct payments team what it wants to see before anyone starts.
Councils tend to ask for the same few things before a direct payment pays a self-employed carer:
- the carer's employment status for tax, which HMRC's Check Employment Status for Tax tool on gov.uk works out in a few minutes
- proof that the carer is insured
- a DBS certificate
- an invoice for the hours worked, which becomes your record of how the money was spent
How direct payments work covers asking for one, what the money can buy and the records councils want back, and self-employed carer or employee? explains the tax question.
The council's arrangements
How direct payments are run in Scottish Borders
What the council publishes about paying the money, getting help and getting in touch. Each card links to the page we checked it against.
How the money is paid: Prepaid card
The council can pay the direct payment onto a Direct Payment prepaid card, and allpay is the card provider.
Provider: allpay
How the money is paid: Separate bank account
You can open a separate bank account of your own and have the direct payment paid into it.
How the money is paid: Managed account
Encompass can hold and manage the direct payment for you through its third party banking service.
Provider: Encompass
Help with running it
Encompass (Borders Direct Payment Agency). Encompass gives independent advice and practical help to people using a direct payment, including recruiting and managing their own staff, payroll and holding the money on their behalf.
Worth knowing
Encompass carries out the audit and reconciliation of direct payments on the council's behalf.
Worth knowing
If you have been assessed as having to contribute towards your care, you can pay your contribution onto the prepaid card from your own bank account.
Who is available
Self-employed carers in Scottish Borders
21 carers are based within about 45 minutes of Scottish Borders. You can see their rates and experience, and message them, before committing to anything.
21 private carers are based within about 45 minutes of Scottish Borders
Filter by what they charge, who drives, who does nights, and who speaks your language, then message the ones you like. Free, and nothing is booked until you say so.
See private carers for Scottish BordersIn their words
Families near Scottish Borders on the carers they chose
“No task was too much for her and she even took my mother on the dance floor in her wheelchair so that she could join in the dancing.”
Helen N., 2026
About Katarzyna M.Carer based in Edinburgh · 2 reviews“My mum was really happy with how Chloe's visit went, saying she would give it 95-99 out of 100% good!”
Summer L., 2019
About Chloe A.Carer based in GalashielsStep by step
Using a direct payment for a carer you choose
- Get the assessment and the support plan. The council assesses the care needed and works out the budget. Say at this stage that you want a direct payment and would like to choose your own carer.
- Check what the council allows. Ask the direct payments team whether it will pay a self-employed carer and what it needs to see from them.
- Find carers and talk to a few. Search carers near you, compare rates, experience and reviews, and message your shortlist. None of that costs anything.
- Agree the hours and rate in writing. Match them to the support plan, and keep within the budget once bank holidays are allowed for.
- Keep the records. Invoices and statements are what the council looks at when it reviews how the direct payment is being used.
Questions
Questions about direct payments in Scottish Borders
Usually, yes. A direct payment can pay a self-employed carer your family has chosen, employ a personal assistant, or buy agency hours. We could not find Scottish Borders Council's own wording on self-employed carers, so ask the direct payments team what checks it wants before anyone starts.
We could not find a rate that Scottish Borders Council publishes. The amount is set in your support plan, worked out from the cost of meeting your eligible needs, less anything the financial assessment says you pay yourself. Ask the council how it calculated the hourly figure, because that decides how many hours the budget buys.
It depends on the rate the council used. Carers near you typically charge £19.00 an hour. Divide your weekly budget by that to see the hours it buys, and remember that bank holidays are charged at one and a half times the usual rate.
In Scotland a family member can be paid where the council, the person and the family member all agree, the family member can do the work, and one of the reasons in the regulations applies, such as a limited choice of providers locally, or support being needed at times when nobody else is available. That is the self-directed support regulations rather than this council's own rule, so ask the direct payments team how it applies it. Can my mum pay me to care for her? covers the other routes.
Only if you employ somebody. Paying a self-employed carer or an agency does not make anyone an employer. Taking on a personal assistant does, which brings payroll, holiday pay, sick pay, pension enrolment and employer's liability insurance. HMRC's Check Employment Status for Tax tool on gov.uk tells you which applies.
Scottish Borders Council's direct payments team at [email protected]. If you do not have a social worker or care assessment yet, start with a needs assessment from adult social care.
Council details were read from Scottish Borders Council's published pages and checked against them on 17 September 2026. Councils change their rates each April, so check the linked page before relying on a figure. Carer rates are what carers near you advertise, read live.
Find a carer in Scottish Borders
See self-employed carers near you with their hourly rates, experience and reviews, and talk to the ones you like for free. Check with the council what your direct payment can pay for before you book.