Luton Borough Council

Your personal budget

Here you can find out how you can have more choice and control over your care services with a personal budget.

During your assessment of care needs your social care assessor will look at your situation, your independence, and how you manage in your everyday life. They will listen to your views and identify your care needs.

With this information we will let you know if you are eligible to receive council-funded care and support and if you are, then we will work out the amount of money that will be needed to support your needs over the next 12 months. This amount is called your ‘personal budget’.

At this point it will be an estimated amount.

Will my personal budget pay all my care costs?

Your personal budget is an estimation of the amount of money which will need to be spent on care and support services in order to meet your assessed needs.

Depending on how much money you have yourself, you may be expected to contribute towards the cost of your care and support.

Our contribution + Your contribution = Your personal budget

So we can work out how much you will be expected to contribute, and therefore how much we will pay, we will need to have an in-depth look at your finances. We do this by giving you a financial assessment.
Your financial assessment will decide if you are expected to pay: some, all, or none of the cost of your care.

What happens next?

Your care and support plan can be created. After this, the exact amount of your personal budget will be agreed with you.

Your care and support plan shows us which services you want to buy from your personal budget, who will provide them, and how these services will meet your care and support needs.

We will ask you for information about the things you want to change in your life and what you want to stay the same. You will need to tell us how you will spend your personal budget to make these things happen.

Your friends, family or your social worker can help you put your care and support plan together, or you can get independent help.

If you would like help with your care and support plan, we can put you in touch with the Direct Payments Support Service, run by the Disability Resource Centre in Luton, an independent organisation which offers information and support.

How is my personal budget managed?

It’s your choice. You have several options:

you can choose to receive your personal budget directly to you, or to an authorised person, so you can arrange and pay for your own care and support
you can ask us to hold your budget, and organise care on your behalf
you can have a mixture of the two options above

I want to manage my personal budget myself

This option gives you the most choice and control over your care.

We will pay the money from your personal budget directly to you, or to someone acting on your behalf, so that you can choose which providers or services you want to use and when you want to use them.

We call this ‘direct payments’. You will need to take on the extra responsibility of organising and paying for these services yourself from your direct payments.

Your direct payment can only be spent on the things we have agreed in your support plan.

The Direct Payments Support Service at the Disability Resource Centre can give you information and support so that you can manage your direct payments yourself. They also offer a free payroll service if you want to employ a personal assistant. They can generate pay slips and complete information on tax for HM Revenue and Customs. If you need to have your direct payment money managed for you the Direct Payments Support Service can provide this service for free.
Follow this link to find out what you can spend your personal budget on.

I want the council to arrange my care services for me

If you prefer not to arrange your care or manage your own budget, then this might be the best option for you. We will put your care services into place and make sure the cost of your services falls within your personal budget.

I want a mix of both options

This is the best of both worlds. You can have your choice for some of your services, combined with the ease of having other care services organised by us when you want it.