What can I spend my personal health budget on?
A Personal Health Budget is the money that is used to support and set up your own care. This can be used for the recruitment of your own carers, to buy equipment to support the service of care, such as hoists and masks ETC, also this is used to pay your staff who support the personal health budget (PHB) holder. The right for a Personal Health Budget (PHB) is identified from your assessment of care needs carried out by the NHS and the Care Commissioner Group.
How do you receive the money for a personal health budget?
The money received for your personal health budget is sent via direct payment. The money for your direct payment will go directly to you, or the authorized person acting on your behalf. The Personal Health Budget holder or the acting behalf will be responsible for making sure what the money is being spent on which will be agreed upon in the care and support plan.
The thing you can’t spend your Personal Health Budget on (PHB)
Stuff not related directly to your care
Employment of family members or people who live with you
Anything provided which is free for the NHS
Gambling, Alcohol, Tobacco
Illegal stuff including cash-in-hand payments
Paying off any debts
Services through benefits
You can use providers to help you manage the Personal Health Budgets (PHB) to go through the recruitment process, you’ll get assigned your own personal assistant who will help you through it with 24-hour support. We will help you purchase aids and equipment which are not provided by the NHS that you require for your care support which is stated in your support plan. What you can’t do is use the direct payment to buy equipment that is already provided by the NHS.
If you were intending to spend your Personal Health Budget (PHB) on social care, you may be required to top up your funds with your own money to help support you in the social care setting.
The benefits of a Personal Health Budget (PHB) are that it gives you more control of your service of care, it keeps you organized if you were to manage it yourself as you’ll know what is getting spent and how much of it is getting spent. The bank account the money goes into must be set up separately for the funds to be cleared into it, the funds won’t go into your personal standard savings account.
If you would like any advice on how to make your Personal Health Budget (PHB) easier click the link to our website to find out more or give us a call!
https://www.personalhealthbudgets.com/
01902 902448