Returned DP Funds 2025/26

Within days of the 2025/26 financial year closing, the embedded reporting functionality within the PPL Direct Payments Portal had analysed over £120m of direct payments to provide a summary of the unused funds that we returned to clients during the year.  

We are delighted to report that PPL returned over £13m to funding authorities during the 2025/26 year, representing 10.6% of the value of direct payments that were managed via the PPL Portal during the year.  These are not notional calculations or future savings, this is real cash physically returned to funding authorities which can then be recycled back into frontline services.  

These are lots of valid reasons why direct payment funding can accrue or build-up.  The PPL Portal enables funding authorities to approach unused funds in a considered, sensitive, appropriate and transparent manner that is wholly consistent with both the Care Act 2014 and their wider duties.  

Funds totalling £7m were returned to six NHS Integrated Care Boards (representing 9.3% of personal health budgets managed via the PPL Portal), with a further £6m being returned to thirteen local authorities (12.7% of the social care direct payments managed via the PPL Portal). 

The return rates vary significantly for each funding authority, and are a function of how long they have been using the PPL Portal, their approach to initial budget allocation, and their historic policy on recovery.  For example:

• One ICB received returned funds of £180,000 (just 1.9% of the funding they routed via the PPL Portal).  They migrated to the PPL Portal during the year, having completed a thorough review of patients' balances which meant they started with very 'clean' balances.  The ICB in question is also notably robust in their resource allocation and budget setting process, so unused funds are less likely to build up. 
• One local authority received returned funds of £1.6m (a whopping 20.2% of the funding they routed via the PPL Portal).  They started the year with a number of people carrying high balances that had built up over a period of time and required a full review, which was completed during the year.  

Whilst the reasons for a build up may differ, at a time of financial strain on local government and ICBs, it is critical that funding authorities have visibility of what could be recycled and assurance that they can physically secure the money.