Payment card for Direct Payments

From Monday 21 January 2019, East Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership and East Lothian Council are changing the way in which they administer Option 1 under Self-directed Support. It is introducing a new payment card for Direct Payments.

The advantages of payment cards include:

• new recipients of a Direct Payment no longer have to set up their own separate bank accounts
• no need any longer to complete financial returns on a quarterly basis (although you will still need to keep receipts for all purchases)
• being able to see how much money is in your Direct Payment account online or by making a phone call.

Payment Cards will also improve the set-up, efficiency and monitoring of Direct Payments and make the whole Direct Payment process much simpler for everyone.

New users of Direct Payments will automatically receive payment cards from now on.