What’s the Difference between Appointeeship and Account Management at Dosh?
By Joanne Davies, Charityworks Graduate
When people think of Dosh they often think about our financial advocates who act as financial appointees for the people we support whilst also being an active member of their circle of support.
What most people don’t know is that Dosh also offers an account management service.
This blog post will talk about what the difference is between having an appointee and having an account manager at Dosh.
As mentioned in these blog posts written by Meike back in 2018, an appointee is a person or organisation that is registered with the department of work and pensions (DWP) to manage a person’s benefits if they lack capacity to do so themselves.
“Simply put, an appointee represents the person with the DWP. This means you do everything the benefit claimant would usually do, like filling out application forms, receiving benefit payments and reporting changes in circumstances.”
“you are responsible for spending the person’s money for them, for example to pay their bills.”
Dosh likes to go the extra mile and provide financial advocates, rather than just appointees. This means that your appointee also advocates for your best interests through being actively involved in your circle of support. Our advocates do their best to help you do what you want to do with your money.
Similarly, our account managers want to help you to do what you want with your money. But, they help you in a very different way.
Our account managers do not spend your everyday benefits money on your behalf. Instead, as outlined on this page, your account manager will support you to manage your care and support funding. This includes all types of self-directed supports, for example they will help you with your personal budget, individual budgets, Individual Service Funds (ISF) and personal health budgets. 
Your account manager will receive your care and support funding from your local authority, or other funding body, and will use that money to pay your support provider.
Account management gives you the freedom to choose who you are supported by and in what way but takes away the stress of having to pay all the invoices on time.
So, let’s break down the differences
| What Dosh Provides: | Advocate | Account Management |
| A financial advocate who is part of your circle of support (if you want them to be) | Yes | No |
| DWP Appointees | Yes | No |
| Dosh managed bank account | Yes | Yes |
| A benefits assessment and help applying for new benefits | Yes | No |
| Applying for, receiving and managing your benefits | Yes | No |
| Setting up direct debits and standing orders for bills | Yes | No |
| Payments for holidays, invoices and other purchases | Yes | No |
| Receive payments from local authority or other funding body | No | Yes |
| Pay invoices for your support | No | Yes |
| Report to the local authority or other funding body on how the budget has been used. | No | Yes |
So, what is the difference between having a financial advocate and an accounts manager?
- Your financial advocate will help you spend your benefits money on the things you want
- Your accounts manager will help you by making sure the funding you receive for your care and support is paid to your support provider.
Contact Dosh to find out more about our advocates and account management to see what Dosh can do for you.
Angela Atkin March 8th, 2021
Posted In: News and Blogs, Uncategorized
Tags: account management, appointeeship
