Direct paymentsWolverhampton
Direct payments in Wolverhampton
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. City of Wolverhampton 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.
Self-employed carers who invoice you for the hours they work
What the council pays
Direct payment rates in Wolverhampton
City of Wolverhampton 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 Wolverhampton
City of Wolverhampton Council allows a direct payment to pay a self-employed carer, with conditions. The council does not recommend using a self-employed personal assistant, and says the employment status of your worker must be clarified before they begin working for you. You must give the Direct Payments Team written confirmation from HMRC for any self-employed workers.
“You must provide the Direct Payments Team with written confirmation from HMRC of any self-employed workers as for the purposes of tax and national insurance”
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.
A direct payment is one of several ways to pay for care. Funding home care in West Midlands sets out the others, from Attendance Allowance to NHS Continuing Healthcare.
Home care in Wolverhampton and private carers in Wolverhampton show the self-employed carers near you, with their rates and reviews.
The council's arrangements
How direct payments are run in Wolverhampton
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 direct payment is loaded onto a prepaid card provided by the council and produced by Prepaid Financial Services, which you can view and manage online, by telephone banking or through the Pocket to Pocket smartphone app.
Provider: Prepaid Financial Services (PFS)
Help with running it
The council works in partnership with Barrie Bookkeeping, who provide a payroll service so that you can pay your staff.
Worth knowing
You may normally hold up to four weeks of unspent money in the account if you use an agency, or up to eight weeks if you employ your own staff, and the council may ask for anything above that to be repaid.
Worth knowing
If you are away from home, for example in hospital or on holiday, payments for employed staff continue for up to four weeks so you can pay a retainer, while agency payments stop straight away.
Worth knowing
A direct payment can only pay for a care home stay of up to four weeks in any rolling twelve month period.
Step 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 Wolverhampton
Yes. The council does not recommend using a self-employed personal assistant, and says the employment status of your worker must be clarified before they begin working for you. You must give the Direct Payments Team written confirmation from HMRC for any self-employed workers. 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 covered by the insurance we arrange for visits booked through PrimeCarers, within its terms (no clinical procedures), and they invoice for the hours worked.
We could not find a rate that City of Wolverhampton 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 to work out your budget and the rate the carer charges. Divide the weekly budget by the carer's hourly rate to see how many hours it buys.
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.
City of Wolverhampton Council's direct payments team on 01902 551294 (Option 6) or at [email protected]. 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 Walsall
- Direct payments in Sandwell
- Direct payments in Dudley
- Direct payments in Birmingham
- Direct payments in Telford and Wrekin
- Direct payments in Staffordshire
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 Wolverhampton that is NHS Black Country.
Council details were read from City of Wolverhampton 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. The local agency figure is the median of 31 agencies near Wolverhampton that publish a price. Carer rates are what carers near you advertise, read live.
Find a carer in Wolverhampton
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.