Social Services can give you money to buy the support and services you want. This is called a Direct Payment.

A Direct Payment means that you are in control.

Plain Facts 10 tells you more about Direct Payments.

Tony Ryan, Andrew Holman and Catherine Bewley did a project about why people with learning difficulties find it hard to get Direct Payments.

They found:

The Government says Social Services must make sure that you get the help you need to get Direct Payments. In some places people with learning difficulties are getting the help they need. In other places it is hard for people to get their Direct Payments.

Some Social Services say that Direct Payments are too hard for people with learning difficulties to understand. But most people can understand about Direct Payments if they get good support and information.