Direct Payment Payroll for Councils

We are extremely proud to have been invited to work with Council Authorities providing payroll services to Direct Payment Service Users.

All members of the PayPartners team in contact with direct payment service users understand the nature of the contracts undertaken. As with all our service users,at all times, the team are professional, polite and cheery in their dealings. We ordinarily afford no extra special treatment to direct payments service users as we believe they would not want us to (and sometimes we are unaware of the nature of the disability). However, in general we are more patient and take the time to talk to the service user when they telephone. The special relationship that builds out of this has paid dividends and the positive feedback and sincere thanks that we receive all indicate that we are continually meeting everyone's expectations.

We understand that the service users who take up direct payments are taking part in a scheme that is still relatively new in practice. For many this has meant becoming an employer for the first time and dealing with all the association that goes with it i.e. recruiting and managing PA's, paying staff, dealing with bank reconciliation of payments etc etc. This, on top of living with a disability can be an extremely stressful phase of their lives and perhaps even more so if English is not the first language.

PayPartners understands the concept of the Direct Payment scheme and so is able to usefully assist in the transitions that are taking place. Our experience lies in making the payroll part of the process compliant and as simple as possible. For example, we register the service user with HMRC and give detailed instructions on amounts to pay-over. We also complete year-end returns filing on-line to ensure compliance. All this helps to take the worry out of our service users dealings with the tax man.

The majority of our service users telephone each pay period with hours worked by their PA's. The team dealing with the payrolls is consistent and our service users speak to the same PayPartners employees each time. We have found that this interaction has been the most popular time for our service users to ask any questions on issues they are unsure of. We do ensure that as far as payroll is concerned our service users comply with the all the relevant legislation and are correctly registered with HMRC.

The PayPartners team are professionally qualified CIPP certificate holders. Our holding company Kinetic plc is accredited to the IIP program and training investment in all of its subsidiaries is continuously monitored.

The procedures for any new payroll are documented and timetabled into our working routines at the commencement of service. Operational worksheets relating to the precise order of working are written and followed to the letter. Forms for taking PA details are raised and put into operation. Each member of the PayPartners team who takes part in the process be it taking the hours over the telephone or mailing the payslips and reports, is highly experienced in dealing with all aspects of the payroll service. Once input, payroll is double checked by another team member before any information is released to the service user. In this way we ensure overall consistency and fairness to each one.

PayPartners is accredited to ISO 9001:2008. We have worked extremely hard to gain this achievement and are audited by ISO every two years. They have been impressed by our quality of service and our operational procedures. Once a year we send our service user a quality questionnaire asking for ratings of our service and comments or suggestions for improvement. Comments received are taken seriously and are addressed immediately.

The sensitive nature of payroll work dictates that the PayPartners team are discreet in their dealing with all service users. We never discuss a service users arrangements with any person other than those within PayPartners or those that we are legally obliged to (HMRC etc). Our computer systems and software are password protected, each user having their own individual log-in for each part of the system. We ensure that at the end of the day all details relating to service user payrolls are secured away. PayPartners introduced a PIN number system for any service user who wanted to ensure the ultimate in security, however the take up has been virtually non-existent as we have found that our current procedures have provided more than sufficient confidence in our abilities.

We recognise that regular contact with all parties involved in the running of this contract is key to the service operating effectively and efficiently. PayPartners operates an open door policy in relation to the Councils we are working with. We are more than happy to hold quarterly monitoring meetings to discuss and review service delivery. We encourage active participation to steer the service to enable the authority to achieve its own targets.

Service offerings currently available for Direct Payment payroll service users:

Standard Direct Payment package
Service user holds funds
PayPartners processes payroll
Service user pays PA/HMRC
Council invoiced for the payroll service fee

Managed Account package
PayPartners holds service user funds in client account
PayPartners processes payroll
PayPartners pays PA/HMRC
PayPartners self bills payroll service fee out of held funds

Self Directed Support package
Service user holds funds
PayPartners processes payroll
Service user pays PA/HMRC
Service user invoiced for the payroll service fee

Prices for each service are available upon request.