Direct paymentsSouth Gloucestershire
Direct payments in South Gloucestershire
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. South Gloucestershire Council says a direct payment can pay a self-employed carer, with some checks first. Below is what the council publishes about its rates and rules, and what an hour of care costs near you.
56 self-employed carers within about 45 minutes of South Gloucestershire
What the council pays
Direct payment rates in South Gloucestershire
South Gloucestershire 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 South Gloucestershire
South Gloucestershire Council allows a direct payment to pay a self-employed carer, with conditions. A direct payment can be used to pay a self-employed personal assistant, but your direct payment may be suspended or end if the council are not satisfied that the arrangements in place comply with HMRC requirements.
“Your direct payment may be suspended or end if the council are not satisfied that the arrangements in place comply with HMRC requirements.”
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 South Gloucestershire
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
Regular direct payments are normally paid onto a direct payments card account, and the card is posted out once the account is set up.
Provider: EML, also trading as Prepaid Financial Services (PFSL)
How the money is paid: Managed account
A direct payment support provider can hold a managed account, viewing the account and making payments on the person's behalf.
Help with running it
Penderels Trust. Works in partnership with South Gloucestershire Council to support adults and children who receive a direct payment in the area.
Worth knowing
The council adds an extra amount to the direct payment to cover the cost of the support provider you choose, although you then pay that provider for the help given.
Worth knowing
If you plan to recruit and employ personal assistants, the council will need to know that you are in touch with one of its direct payment support providers.
Worth knowing
The cost of stationery bought to keep direct payment records and employment files can be claimed back from the direct payment account.
Who is available
Self-employed carers in South Gloucestershire
56 carers are based within about 45 minutes of South Gloucestershire. You can see their rates and experience, and message them, before committing to anything.
56 private carers are based within about 45 minutes of South Gloucestershire
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 South GloucestershireStep 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 South Gloucestershire
Yes. A direct payment can be used to pay a self-employed personal assistant, but your direct payment may be suspended or end if the council are not satisfied that the arrangements in place comply with HMRC requirements. The checks a council asks for are usually the carer's employment status for tax, their insurance and their DBS certificate. Carers on PrimeCarers are self-employed, hold an enhanced DBS and are insured while they work, and they invoice for the hours worked.
We could not find a rate that South Gloucestershire 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 £21.60 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 England a direct payment cannot normally pay the person’s husband, wife or partner, or a close relative who lives in the same household, unless the council considers it necessary. That is the direct payments 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.
South Gloucestershire Council's direct payments team on 01454 868007. If you do not have a social worker or care assessment yet, start with a needs assessment from adult social care.
Direct payments in nearby council areas
- Direct payments in Bristol
- Direct payments in Bath and North East Somerset
- Direct payments in North Somerset
- Direct payments in Newport
- Direct payments in Monmouthshire
- Direct payments in Gloucestershire
If the care needed is mainly about health, the NHS may pay for all of it through Continuing Healthcare, decided by the NHS rather than the council. In South Gloucestershire that is NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.
Council details were read from South Gloucestershire 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 South Gloucestershire
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.