Benefits of employing a personal assistant and your responsibilities as an employer.
Benefits
There are many benefits to using your direct payment to employ a personal assistant. It means you can:
- choose who you employ
- decide what you want them to do
- agree the hours they work
- be more independent
For more information, see employing personal assistants on the Skills for Care website
Becoming an employer
You’ll become an employer and you will have responsibilities by law.
You’ll need to do things like:
- write a job description
- set up a contract of employment
- pay your personal assistant
- provide a pension
- follow health and safety
- get insurance
- give maternity, paternity and adoption rights
- follow redundancy procedures
- have proper policies and follow employment law
If you choose to use a direct payment support service they'll be able to offer you advice and support.
For local support services see:
- West of England Centre for Independent Living (WECIL)
- PeoplePlus Go to https://peopleplus.mylifeportal.co.uk/landing-pages/region-south-west-bristol (opens new window)
Providing a pension
As an employer you'll have responsibility for a pension scheme. Find out about workplace pensions on GOV.UK
National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) is the workplace pension set up by government.