Direct Payments and paying your client contribution

This amount will be updated in April each year in line with any changes to benefits/income you may receive, and you will be informed of the outcome by the Financial Assessment Team.

In some cases, you may have been advised that you don't need to pay a client contribution. If your financial situation changes at any time, you should contact the Financial Assessment Team on 03000 268 232, to make them aware. If you are then instructed that you need to start paying a contribution, you should contact the Direct Payments Team to discuss this.

There are two ways in which your client contribution can be paid, based on how your Direct Payment is paid to you. These are outlined below, and a Direct Payments support worker will advise which is applicable to you.

Payment by invoice or direct debit

Most people pay their client contribution via an invoice, issued every four weeks by the council. These invoices are to be paid from your own personal funds. Details of how to pay these will be on the reverse of each invoice. Many people choose to set up a Direct Debit to pay their client contribution invoices. Annual changes in your client contribution amount will automatically be reflected in the invoices issued to you. 

To discuss paying an invoice or setting up a direct debit, you can call the Collections team on 03000 268 280.

Payment into the Direct Payments Account

A small number of people pay their client contribution directly into their Direct Payments Account. For these cases, the amount received from the council together with the client contribution amount, will make up the total Direct Payments. If paying using this method, you should always pay the exact four-weekly amount into the Direct Payment Account and not lump sums or rounded up/down amounts. If you are notified of any change in your client contribution amount by the Financial Assessment Team, you must amend the amount you are paying into your Direct Payment Account accordingly. During an audit, we will check to ensure you have paid in the correct amount of client contribution into the Direct Payment Account and an invoice will be issued for any shortfall.