You can choose to employ your own personal assistant (or several personal assistants) to provide your direct payment care and support.
Calculating sick pay
Your payroll company should be able to calculate sick pay as needed, however if you need to do a manual calculation, check the following webpages for guidance:
Calculating annual leave
Summary of your responsibilities
As an employer you have full responsibility for your personal assistant under employment law. This means that you should:
- have employers liability insurance in case of any accidents or incidents whilst your personal assistant is on duty.
- have a contract in place with your personal assistant
- A payroll service who can pay your personal assistant each month, taking into account any HMRC requirements (such as tax and National Insurance).
- complete an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check for your personal assistant.
What rate can I pay my personal assistant?
The rate that we pay you per hour to employ a personal assistant is £14.39 for 2023-24. This does not necessarily mean your personal assistant will be paid this full amount per hour.
You will need to keep part of the rate in order to cover payroll and insurance costs. Rates of pay for your personal assistant are usually about 20% less than the rate paid to you directly; depending on your own specific circumstances.
Who can I employ as a personal assistant?
You can employ several personal assistants in order to cover the support you have been assessed as needing.
If you post a job advert for the role you can hire someone who specifically responds to the advert. You can also recruit a family member or a friend as a personal assistant.
You should bear in mind any potential issues if you employ someone you already have a relationship with; such as if there was any need for disciplinary action, or safeguarding concerns.
Training
Your personal assistant can access free eLearning courses via our Workforce Development Team.
To access this training, either you or your personal assistant should email workforcedevelopment@wrexham.gov.uk with the following:
- your personal assistant’s full name
- your personal assistant’s email address
- your personal assistant’s National Insurance number
This information will be used to set up your personal assistant’s free eLearning account.
Contact our Direct Payments Team
Email: directpayments@wrexham.gov.uk