Personal Budgets and "legal rewards"

London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Council did not have the information requested.

Dear Barking & Dagenham Borough Council,

I am interested in finding out about the Councils opinion of “legal
rewards” or “thank you payments” for people on personal budgets /
direct payments? (This is where someone is able to buy the
occasional gift/ meal/ voucher etc for someone providing unpaid
assistance – such as a neighbour who goes in to help a person with
their correspondence or a friend who runs errands for the disabled
person).

Are people allowed to use some of/ their entire personal budget in
this way?

If not - what are the reasons for the council not allowing personal
budgets to be used in this way?

If yes:

1. Is this decided on an individual basis or is this something that
anyone could incorporate into the support plan?

2. Is there generic guidance as to the maximum that can be used as
a “legal reward”, for example a certain percentage of the PB or a
certain cash amount per week/month/year? What is this percentage /
maximum cash amount?

3. Are there things that a person can definitely NOT buy as a legal
reward? (According to guidelines, PBs can’t be used for buying
food, alcohol, bills, gambling etc – however a disabled person
might want to buy a friend a bottle of wine to say thank you, or
pay for a coffee and a sandwich if the friend helps them to go to a
social event, or to pay for petrol once in a while if the friend/
neighbour drives them to the shops regularly?)

4. What restrictions do you place on the ways people can give a
“legal reward”? For example, they can only give a gift voucher, not
cash or that the person has to call each time, in advance and give
justification of the type of payment/ payment in kind that they
propose using etc. Or is there complete freedom once the concept of
“legal reward” is in the support plan?

5. How do you ask people to account for their use of legal rewards?
(Do you ask the PB recipient to provide full details of the person
they would like to “reward” and get a signed receipt, or is it just
accepted that the helper is actually receiving the reward.

6. What are the advantages / disadvantages of allowing PB
recipients to use their PB for “legal rewards”.

Yours faithfully,

Jenny Hurst

Freedom of Information, London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Council

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ahmed remi,

Dear Jenny Hurst

Thank you for your e-mail received 07 January 2011 requesting information regarding Council opinion about Personal Budgets and "legal rewards".

Mike Lineker in Human Resources will arrange for the information to be provided to you no later than 04/02/2011.

Whilst it is the Council's policy to provide information wherever possible, I need to advise you that there are a number of exemptions under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. These may prevent me from releasing all or some of the information you have asked for. You will, however be informed if this is the case and why.

Yours sincerely

Remi Ahmed
Corporate Complaints & FOI Team
Barking and Dagenham Direct
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham
2nd Floor Roycraft House
Linton Road Barking
IG11 8HE
Phone: 020 8227 5788
Fax: 020 8227 5184

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Lineker Mike, London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Council

Dear Ms Hurst,

Request for information LBBD/51684

Your request for information about `legal rewards' or `thank you payments'
has been considered.

The Council does not provide these types of rewards or payments and
therefore does not have a policy or staff guidance covering these
circumstances.

If you are not satisfied with the way that I have dealt with your request
you can make a complaint by writing to the Corporate Complaints & FOI
Team, Room 104, Town Hall, 1 Town Square, Barking IG11 7HE. Alternatively
you can make your complaint on-line at [1]www.barking-dagenham.gov.uk or
you can e-mail your complaint to [2][Barking & Dagenham Borough Council request email].

If you are still not satisfied, after following our Corporate Complaints
procedure, you can take your complaint to the Information Commissioner.
Full details of how to do this will be made available on request.

If you need any more information, or if I can be of any further help,
please contact me.

Yours sincerely

Mike Lineker | HR Manager | HR Management Information & Performance Team

London Borough of Barking and Dagenham | 2nd Floor Annexe | Civic Centre
| Dagenham | RM10 7BN

Phone: 0208 227 2375

Fax: 0208 227 2806

E-mail: [3][email address] | www.lbbd.gov.uk

Working together for a better borough that is safe, clean, fair and
respectful,

prosperous and healthy, and where our young people are inspired and
successful.

P Protect the environment and save trees; please only print if essential

E-mail confidentiality notice. This message is intended for the addressees
only. It may be private, confidential and may be covered by legal
professional privilege or other confidentiality requirements.  All
communications sent to or from this organisation may be subject to
recording or monitoring in accordance with relevant legislation.  If you
are not one of the intended recipients, please notify the sender
immediately on +44 0 20-8215-3000 and delete the message from all
locations in your computer network. Do not copy this email or use it for
any purpose or disclose its contents to any person: to do so maybe
unlawful.

References

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