I have been given a list of agencies that I can use instead of ‘We are Purple’ to manage our DP . and told to ‘pick one’. Very difficult with nothing to go on - I can go into each website but I am not an accountant and am unsure how to choose. I am tempted to keep with Purple because although they are awful it’s the ‘devil you know’. Any advice?
Who is this new support service for DP that I was told about by social services but not given any contact info about?
Anyone else in the same situation?
Hi @Elise
I too would be interested to hear people’s experience of using direct payment agencies here in Oxfordshire.
Is this the list you have been given?
https://livewell.oxfordshire.gov.uk/Search?CategoryId=183&SM=ServiceSearch&UDG=True&SME=True
I went through the list shown there and looked for online reviews of each organisation or company listed there. Below are links to the reviews on Google I could find. To see them, you’ll need to click the link below and then click the link to the Google Reviews in the box on the right of the page.
Disability Resource Centre Reviews
Roskel Direct Payments Reviews
PayPartners Reviews. These reviews for PayPartners all seem to be for their general payroll service rather than their direct payments payroll service.
Connection Support Reviews. To see the reviews for this one you need to click on the link to ‘Connection Support’ just below the map which shows on the page.
From reading the reviews there is a lot of dissatisfaction with We are Purple.
Perhaps you could call the alternative agencies you might be interested in working with and see what sort of response you get from them?
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Hi Neil,
thanks - that was very useful. In the end I rang Disabled Connections and they were incredibly knowledgable and helpful so I went with them - although they do see to be far more expensive as a service - not sure why.
the Disability Resource Centre looks good so maybe if I were paying myself I might reconsider and go with them. Certainly none of them could be worse than Purple, who have been unstintingly bad for years.
Thanks, Jane
Would be interested to know what agencies charge, I use an accountancy company to run my payroll( SC allow so much per payslip).
I am a little perturbed by the huge differences in how much the ones they have offered us on the list charge - apparently the charge is taken up byDP so maybe I don’t need to worry about it…I seem to have inadvertently chosen the most expensive! but maybe that goes with additional services and support which I welcome as Purple gave us nothing and made huge mistakes on the payroll…
However, doesn’t that reduce the amount of money available to use for direct support?
It would be interesting to compare the differences in cost between the agencies/accountancy services and the different services being offered.
Hi Neil,
According to the flyer I have, the fee is given in addition to the normal DP funding - that is what I understood.
Jane
We left payroll when it was advance, went back when purple as it was much cheaper to set up Nest, ((worried about about public money) left again as so many payroll problems and wrong information