Direct paymentsTorbay
Direct payments in Torbay
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. Torbay 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.
24 self-employed carers within about 45 minutes of Torbay
What the council pays
Direct payment rates in Torbay
Torbay 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 Torbay
Torbay Council allows a direct payment to pay a self-employed carer, with conditions. A direct payment can pay a self-employed personal assistant, but you must work out the correct employment status from how the work is arranged in practice and the council points you to the HMRC check employment status for tax tool.
“HMRC can override your agreement if the facts suggest the PA is actually employed.”
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 Torbay
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: Managed account
Disability Focus, one of two organisations commissioned by the council, offers managed accounts and invoice payments for people with Direct Payments.
Provider: Disability Focus
Help with running it
Disability Focus. Offers advice, payroll support, managed accounts and invoice payments for people in Torbay with Direct Payments or Personal Health Budgets.
Where the council points you to find a personal assistant
Worth knowing
A direct payment cannot be used to buy respite care of more than four weeks in any year.
Worth knowing
A relative who lives in the same household can only be paid from the direct payment if the council agrees to it.
Worth knowing
The cost of the employer's liability and public liability insurance you need as a personal assistant employer is meant to be built into the personal budget.
Who is available
Self-employed carers in Torbay
24 carers are based within about 45 minutes of Torbay. You can see their rates and experience, and message them, before committing to anything.
24 private carers are based within about 45 minutes of Torbay
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 TorbayIn their words
Families near Torbay on the carers they chose
“Grace has a very mature and positive approach to care and caring for vulnerable people and brought a ray of sunshine to what was a dark period in our life.”
Gail P., 2026
About Grace E.Carer based in Paignton · 2 reviews“She was on-time, immediately helping us to travel to an overnight hotel. She stayed overnight and kept a gentle watch on me until the next day.”
Gemma C., 2023
About Linda May H.Carer based in TorbayStep 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 Torbay
Yes. A direct payment can pay a self-employed personal assistant, but you must work out the correct employment status from how the work is arranged in practice and the council points you to the HMRC check employment status for tax tool. 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 Torbay 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 £19.20 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.
Torbay Council's direct payments team on 01803 219700. 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 Devon
- Direct payments in Plymouth
- Direct payments in Somerset
- Direct payments in Cornwall
- Direct payments in Dorset
- Direct payments in Vale of Glamorgan
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 Torbay that is NHS Devon.
Council details were read from Torbay 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 Torbay
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.