Terms and conditions
About Independent Lives
We are a user-led organisation supporting people with health and/or social care needs to be independent.
Through listening to our members and customers we provide and develop a range of services to help people gain and maintain their independence. Any surplus funds generated by our services are used to improve and widen our services to further promote independence.
How we operate
We are made up of two organisations: Independent Lives (Disability) is a registered charity (number 1153815). Independent Lives Trading Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Independent Lives (Disability) and a private limited company.
Independent Lives (Disability) provides a Direct Payment Support Services and Care Services and Independent Lives Trading Ltd provides Payroll Services and Banking Administration Services. All profit from our trading arm is gifted to our Charity.
Your contract may either be with the Independent Lives (Disability) or Independent Lives (Trading) Ltd, depending on the types of services you require.
What is this document?
This document outlines the type of help and support Independent Lives can provide to you and your responsibilities to us in return. It also serves as a record for each party.
Please take time to read through this document.
Terms used in this document
HMRC: HM Revenue & Customs
PAs: Personal Assistants
NI: National Insurance
Nest Pensions: Nest is the workplace pension scheme set up by the government. It's free for employers to use.
SMP: Statutory Maternity Pay
SSP: Statutory Sick Pay
DP: Direct Payment
Safeguarding: Protecting the health, wellbeing and human rights of adults and children at risk, enabling them to live safely, free from abuse and neglect. It also means making sure that the adult's wellbeing is supported and their views, wishes, feelings and beliefs are respected when agreeing on any action.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): Data privacy and security law which are Europe wide.
Data Protection: Data protection is the process of safeguarding important information from corruption, compromise or loss.
Who do we provide the service to?
For employers choosing not to manage their own payroll, we have a dedicated payroll team to help you manage employees’ pay e.g. PAs
We help you keep to the financial rules for employers set by the government. It is a legal requirement that you pay your staff their wages at the time they are due. When notified by us, you must also pay any tax and national insurance due to HMRC. (If we manage your Direct Payment account, we will make payments to your staff and HMRC).
It is helpful if you provide us promptly, the information which we may need to provide high quality services to you. You must also tell Independent Lives if any of your details change.
For you to get the most out of your support it is important that you have read through all relevant documentation you receive.
Our commitment to you - our Payroll Service will:
- calculate your employee hours from the information that you provide us.
- process your hours every 4 weeks.
- comply with all statutory requirements including tax, NI, SSP, SMP, Pensions and student loans etc.
- inform you about the amounts you need to pay your PAs and HMRC which will include.
- Tax, NI and any other statutory deductions (unless we manage your DP account).
- set up new starters and settle up leavers.
- set up a direct debit with your DP account and request any backdated amount.
- provide payslips to your PAs.
- upon receipt of written/emailed instructions from you, make appropriate changes to rates of pay.
- keep records in line with HMRC requirements, including online filing of end-of-year returns
- provide you with current information about our fees prior to you signing this contract.
- handle your personal information in line with GDPR.
- communicate your pension obligations to you, so that you comply with auto enrolment legislation.
- deal with your pension administration, including employees starting & leaving and submitting contributions.
- use the Direct Debit agreement to set up Nest pension contributions.
- If we were to make PAYE calculation errors, missed deadlines and/or fail to submit pensions contributions on time, we will remedy those errors as the earliest opportunity and ensure there are no losses to the you.
Your commitment to us
You agree to
- provide all necessary information to us e.g. details of new employees, employees leaving, within the specified payroll processing dates.
- provide your employees’ pay information to us within the specified payroll processing dates.
- be responsible for paying monies due to HMRC when we notify you of the amounts. (unless we manage your DP account).
- notify us of any changes in contact details both for you and your staff.
- complete and return the Direct Debit mandate to pay for the payroll service.
We reserve the right to:
- check with you any irregularity about your PA hours.
- liaise with other Independent Lives services as appropriate and/or to contact a relevant local authority officer if necessary.
- not to accept customers who are not individual employers of personal assistants and/or similar.
- discontinue running payrolls on your behalf if payment for the service is not received.
Our charges
Payroll costs are the same for each pay period.
The four weekly fee for this service is: £26.60 plus VAT
So, you will pay £31.92 each pay period.
Third Party Rights Act (1999)
We have no contractual relationship with any person(s) providing care services to you. Any disputes between you and providers of services that are not related to Independent Lives (Trading) Ltd Payroll Services must be resolved in the manner determined between you and that provider.
Your information
The information you give us will be kept confidential by Independent Lives and subject to Data Protection law requirements. However, we do work closely with Social Services/the NHS who provides your funding and we may need to share information with them.
There are exceptional circumstances where we are legally required to disclose information to authorities such as the police or Local Authority, for example if a safeguarding issue is being investigated. So that we can provide the right support we may keep the following information:
- Contact details – email, phone number, address
- Personal information i.e. date of birth.
- Health and/or Social Care Information – if we are helping you write your Job description this really helps as we have all the information to hand. It will also help us understand the outcomes which are agreed with your funder.
- Ethnic background, sexual orientation, sexual identity – collecting this information so we can ensure our diverse communities have equal access to our services and there are no barriers to accessing our services, for example language.
You must provide to us promptly and accurately all the information which we may need so we can provide the services to you.
You must also tell Independent Lives (Disability) if any of your details change.
You can also find our privacy policy on our website at: https://www.independentlives.org/about-us/policies/privacy/
Terms and conditions
Paying for your services:
- You must pay the charges for the services as notified to you by us, together with any applicable taxes (for example VAT).
- We can change the charges as set out in paragraph ‘our charges’, but if we do so, we will give not less than 30 days written notice to you. All payments by you should be made to Independent Lives
- We reserve the right to suspend or cancel the services whilst we recover any debt you owe under the agreements
Changing this agreement
We may at any time improve, modify, amend or alter the terms of these agreements and/or the services and their content if:
- there is any change or amendment to any contract, law or regulation which applies to us or the services provided to you;
- for security, technical or operational reasons;
However, you will have the right to cancel the affected services if you are unhappy with the changes we have made.
- We may change charges. Any changes to our charges we will give you notice of the change at least 30 days before the changes take effect. Any changes to charges will be reflected on your next bill after the changes take effect.
- You will have the right to cancel the affected services if you do not agree with the increase in the charges, as described in paragraph ‘your termination rights’ below.
Suspending services
We may suspend or reduce any or all the services immediately without notice if:
- you have broken any agreement
- we have to do so by law or in line with a contract.
- we have reason to believe that you have provided us with false, inaccurate or misleading information either for the purpose of obtaining the services or at any time during the provision of the services.
- we believe that you or another person involved with you have committed, or may be committing, any fraud against us, and/or any other person or organisation by using the services or systems (or both);
- we do not receive a signed copy of the contract document from you within 30 days of starting your services: or
- you or anyone you authorise to deal with us on your behalf acts in a way towards our employees which we reasonably consider to be abusive.
Your termination rights
You may terminate the provision of any services or cancel all agreements between you and us at any time after the minimum term by giving us 30 days' notice. You must pay any charges up to the end of that 30-day notice period.
If you end one or more of the services during the minimum period, or if you break these agreements and we end any agreement with you within the minimum period, you must immediately pay to Independent Lives (Disability) an early termination fee in respect of each cancelled service, unless otherwise determined by us.
Comments, suggestions and complaints
We would very much like to hear your comments and ideas for improvement of our services. You can contact us with your thoughts about the service at any time through our website www.independentlives.org
If you have a complaint, please raise it immediately with your adviser who will work hard to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.
If you feel this would be inappropriate, please raise your complaint with the manager of the service who will help to resolve the issue. Independent Lives has a written complaints procedure. If you wish to view a copy of this, please access it via our website www.independentlives.org.
Alternatively, you can request a copy from our office. If you are not happy with the outcome of this process you have the right to complain to the local authority through the social or care worker that referred, you to our service.