A Powys resident who helps carers to become self-employed said “it’s really important to value everyone who provides care” as it emerged some carers had gone up to three months without pay over the Christmas period.
Carers working with Powys County Council contacted the Brecon St John’s Ward councillor Matthew Dorrance to say they had not received wages - some for as few as 15 days and others for around three months.
Powys council has apologised since the leader of the Labour group brought the payment issue to the attention of the Cabinet Portfolio Holders on Monday, January 17.
Heather Maling, who works for Community Catalysts to help set-up social enterprises to help other people, said: “The people that I work with are all self-employed and the personal assistants, the other sort of independent carers, they all work and they all get something called a direct payment so that’s money that the council will look at people’s circumstances and assess what’s needed and see how much the person is able to afford themselves through a financial assessment and then they will contribute as well so they may contribute everything or they may make a small contribution.”
“It’s really important to value everybody who provides care and it can be really stressful if people aren’t paid.”
“Everyone needs to be valued that provides care - they’re absolutely amazing people. People that have stepped in during covid, before the vaccines. Having no idea of the risk that they were personally taking, they stood by their clients.”
Ms Maling commended Powys council who said have been working hard to remedy the problem.
When asked about how hard carers worked through the pandemic, Ms Maling said: “They’ve made incredible personal sacrifices keeping on shielding themselves to enable them to carry out care and support with a minimum risk to their clients.”
Ms Maling said that self-employed carers have the benefit of being able to pick when they work - she said the carer she works with vary from working eight to 40 hours a week.
She said: “I know that there are a lot of people who are waiting for care and support in the Brecon area and that’s no secret, and we have a shortage of people who are able to provide that. What I do is I help people set up a self-employed in care and support so I’m doing everything I can to make it easy for people who may have previously been carers or who are working in a different way as carers and want then to be self-employed and to have more control over how they work.”
Cllr Matthew Dorrance brought the issue of carers not receiving their pay to the cabinet after he was contacted by local councillors.
He said he was contacted by a local carer via social media who told him she works in care and is paid via a system called Direct Payments - managed by a company called PeoplePlus on behalf of the council.
Speaking to the cabinet members, Cllr Dorrance said: “The Council commissioned PeoplePlus to administer the Direct Payment scheme including the payroll function for many care staff.
“However, I have been informed by residents in my ward that care staff have gone without pay, some for three months over the Christmas period. This is not acceptable. Getting paid on time is an employee’s right not a luxury.
“Care staff undertake some of the most important work in our society and they have continued to do that through a very difficult and challenging period.
”Despite not getting their pay, these staff have still turned up for work and delivered the care their clients need.”
Cllr Dorrance, who also asked the Chair of the Health and Care Scrutiny Committee to undertake an investigation, asked Cllr Myfanwy Alexander, the portfolio holder for adult social care and Welsh language: what assessment the council made of the problem; what the council is doing about it; how it is working to ensure everyone gets paid; how the council will ensure the issue is not repeated; and, whether the council would apologise to staff who were left without pay.
Cllr Alexander agreed with the St John Ward councillor about the incredible work carers provide, and that it is “imperative” that care staff are paid “appropriately and in a timely manner”.
At the January meeting, Cllr Alexander said: “The Council was advised by PeoplePlus that their payroll team had been badly affected by staff illness (COVID-19) at the end of December 2021 and this impacted upon the payroll service.
“The organisation advised that they followed their contingency plans and brought in agency staff and redeployed staff from other areas, but that some of these arrangements were further challenged by sickness. It is not anticipated, therefore, that this will happen again and PeoplePlus have assured the Council that this is the case. However, on this occasion 32 care staff were affected and received late payments.
“All the Direct Payment recipients who were adversely affected have been contacted and will receive an apology letter from PeoplePlus.
“By January 7 2022 PeoplePlus advise that all normal payroll payments were made and up to date, with some other ‘amendments’ (where additional hours had been worked or other unusual payments) outstanding. These are also being fast-tracked to ensure they are paid as soon as possible.
“The direct payments support service is currently being assessed with options being appraised to decide how to proceed with the service in the future. Service resilience will be an essential part of this options appraisal for future provision. The Council does not have the details of the personal assistants affected by this situation as they are employed by the service users directly.
“However, what happened on this occasion was not acceptable and for this both PeoplePlus and the Council apologise unreservedly.”