Direct payments and deputyship after Re Direct Payments

Alexander Drapkin

Direct payments are now an ordinary feature of the care arrangements of many people who lack capacity, and particularly of those with substantial personal injury or clinical negligence awards. A public body, rather than commissioning the care itself, pays money to someone who uses it to buy care for P. Often, that person is P’s professional property and affairs deputy, acting under an order in standard terms. In Re Various Applications (Re Direct Payments) [2026] EWCOP 42 (T2), handed down on 10 September 2026, HHJ Hilder held that this is not something a deputy in standard terms has authority to do. The judgment answered 24 questions about what would follow. It will now require a large number of professional deputies to make applications to the Court of Protection, both for the future and in respect of the past.