Terms of Service

1. Who may use the Service

You must be at least 18 years old and legally able to enter into a contract to create a paying account.

The Service is intended for use in the United Kingdom by:

• an individual who employs one or more Personal Assistants using a Direct Payment;
• a family member, nominated person, authorised representative or other person who has authority to manage HR administration for that employer; and
• a Personal Assistant or worker who has been invited to use the PA portal.

If you create or administer an account for another person, you confirm that you have their authority to do so and to provide instructions concerning the account and its data. You must stop acting if that authority ends.

The person who purchases the subscription is the Account Owner. A Personal Assistant who only uses an invited PA account is not responsible for subscription charges.

By creating an account or accepting an invitation, you agree to these Terms. Our Privacy Notice explains how we use personal information for our own purposes.

2. What Direct Payments HR provides

Direct Payments HR is self-service HR administration software. Depending on your plan and the features available, the Service may allow you to:

• store PA profiles, employment information and documents;
• record working time, timesheets, holiday, sickness and other absences;
• let PAs clock in and out and submit timesheets, holiday requests and expenses;
• approve, reject and retain a dated history of requests and decisions;
• create reports, audit packs and exports; and
• send or make approved information available to a payroll provider chosen by you.

We provide the software and supporting technical services. We do not:

• manage, administer or monitor your Direct Payment or personal budget;
• decide whether the subscription is an allowable Direct Payment expense;
• employ, recruit, supervise, schedule or manage your PAs;
• act as your HR adviser, payroll bureau, accountant, solicitor or regulated care provider;
• calculate or process payroll, deduct tax or National Insurance, make payments, or submit information to HMRC;
• make employment-status, holiday-pay, National Minimum Wage, right-to-work, DBS, safeguarding or dismissal decisions for you; or
• guarantee that a record, report, template or export satisfies every legal, contractual, council, payroll-provider or audit requirement.

Any templates, reminders, calculations, guidance or suggested workflows within the Service are administrative aids and general information. They are not legal, tax, payroll, employment, safeguarding or clinical advice. You should obtain professional advice where needed.

3. Your account and authorised users

You must provide accurate, current information and keep it updated. Login details are personal and must not be shared. You are responsible for using reasonable security measures, including a strong password, protecting access to your email account and signing out of shared devices.

You must tell us promptly at support@directpayments.app if you believe an account has been accessed without permission.

The Account Owner controls invitations and access within the employer workspace. Before inviting someone or granting access, the Account Owner must make sure that person is authorised to see the relevant information. The Account Owner must remove access promptly when it is no longer required.

We may rely on instructions submitted through an authenticated account unless we know, or reasonably suspect, that the account has been compromised or the person lacks authority.

4. Acceptable use

You must use the Service lawfully and only for its intended purpose. You must not:

• access another person's account or data without authority;
• upload unlawful, misleading, defamatory, infringing or malicious material;
• use the Service to harass, discriminate against, monitor unlawfully or otherwise harm another person;
• introduce malware, attempt to bypass security controls, probe for vulnerabilities or disrupt the Service;
• scrape, reverse engineer, copy or resell the Service except where the law expressly permits it; or
• use automated systems in a way that places an unreasonable load on the Service.

Do not upload information that is not reasonably needed for HR administration. In particular, avoid unnecessary medical details, criminal-offence information, financial account details or identity documents.

5. Your responsibilities as an employer or representative

The employer or authorised representative remains responsible for complying with employment, tax, data-protection, immigration, safeguarding, funding-agreement and record-keeping obligations that apply to them.

You are responsible for:

• deciding what information to collect, the lawful reason for collecting it and how long it should be kept;
• giving PAs and other workers any privacy information required by law;
• checking the accuracy and completeness of working-time, holiday, absence, expense and employment records;
• reviewing requests and approving or rejecting them appropriately;
• checking all reports and exports before relying on or sending them;
• confirming payroll deadlines, formats and contact details with your payroll provider;
• keeping any additional records required by your council, support plan, funding agreement, insurer, payroll provider or the law; and
• maintaining a reasonable alternative process if the Service is temporarily unavailable.

A delivery status, notification, audit entry or email record shows what the Service recorded or attempted. It does not by itself prove that a recipient read, accepted or acted on the information.

6. Subscriptions, payment and renewal

6.1 Choosing a subscription

We offer monthly and annual subscriptions. Before you place an order, the checkout will show the plan, total price including applicable taxes, billing interval, included features and any minimum commitment. Those details form part of your contract with us. If they conflict with these Terms, the checkout details take priority for that order.

6.2 When the subscription starts

Your subscription starts when we accept your order and send confirmation to the email address on your account. You authorise our payment-services provider to charge the payment method you provide.

If you ask us during checkout to provide access immediately, the Service will begin before the end of the 14-day cancellation period described in section 7.

6.3 Automatic renewal

Unless the checkout says otherwise, your subscription renews automatically for successive periods of the same length—monthly or annual—until cancelled. The renewal charge will be the price notified to you for the next billing period.

We will send renewal reminders where required by law. For annual subscriptions, we will also normally email a reminder at least 14 days before renewal. You remain responsible for keeping your email address current and checking filtered or junk-mail folders.

6.4 Price changes

We may change a subscription price by giving at least 30 days' notice. A price change will not apply part-way through a period you have already paid for. It will take effect at your next renewal after the notice period. You may cancel before renewal if you do not accept the new price.

6.5 Failed payments

If a payment fails, we may retry it and ask you to update your payment method. If payment remains outstanding for seven days, we may restrict the account to read-only access or suspend paid features. We will not charge interest or a late-payment fee unless this is clearly disclosed before purchase and permitted by law.

7. Cancelling your subscription and the 14-day right to cancel

7.1 Cancelling a future renewal

You may cancel at any time through the account billing settings, where available, or by emailing support@directpayments.app. Cancellation stops the next renewal. Unless section 7.2 applies or the law requires otherwise, you will continue to have paid access until the end of the current billing period and we will not provide a partial refund for unused time.

We will confirm cancellation by email. Cancelling the subscription does not automatically delete the account or its records; section 12 explains the export and deletion process.

7.2 Statutory cancellation right

If you are a consumer, you normally have 14 days from the day after the contract is made to cancel your online subscription without giving a reason.

To exercise this right, send a clear statement to support@directpayments.app before the cancellation period ends. You may use the model cancellation form at the end of these Terms, but you do not have to.

If you expressly asked us to start the Service during the 14-day period and then cancel during that period, we may deduct a proportionate amount for the Service supplied up to the time you told us you were cancelling, where the law allows. Otherwise, we will refund payments due to you without undue delay and no later than 14 days after you tell us you are cancelling, using the original payment method unless you agree otherwise.

7.3 Problems with the Service

The cancellation provisions above do not limit your rights if the Service is not provided with reasonable care and skill, does not match its description or otherwise fails to meet legal requirements. Contact us so that we can investigate and, where appropriate, repair the issue, repeat the service, reduce the price or provide a refund as required by law.

8. Availability, maintenance and changes

We will provide the Service with reasonable care and skill. We aim to keep it available and secure, but we do not promise uninterrupted, error-free or permanent availability. Planned maintenance, urgent security work, internet failures and events outside our reasonable control may affect access.

We may update or change features to improve the Service, maintain security, comply with law or reflect technical changes. We will give reasonable advance notice of a change that materially reduces the paid Service. A material reduction will not take effect for your existing paid period unless it is reasonably necessary for security, legal or operational reasons. If a material reduction substantially disadvantages you, you may contact us to end the affected subscription and request an appropriate refund for unused time.

You should download important records regularly and before deadlines. The Service is not your only legally required backup or business-continuity process.

9. Third-party services and payroll exports

The Service may interact with payment providers, email providers, hosting providers, authentication services and payroll contacts or systems selected by you. Third-party services have their own terms and privacy practices, and their availability is outside our control.

We do not guarantee that a payroll provider will accept a particular export or transmission. You must check the contents, recipient, delivery status and payroll outcome. Sending information through the Service does not transfer responsibility for payroll to us.

10. Your content and our intellectual property

You and the relevant individuals retain ownership of information and documents uploaded to the Service (Customer Content). You give us a limited permission to host, copy, transmit, display and otherwise process Customer Content only as needed to provide, secure, maintain and support the Service and comply with law.

You confirm that you have the necessary authority and lawful basis to provide Customer Content and permit us to process it in this way.

We own or license the Service, including its software, design, branding and non-customer content. We give you a personal, limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable and revocable right to use the Service during your subscription in accordance with these Terms. We do not transfer ownership of the Service or its intellectual property to you.

If you give us feedback, you permit us to use it without payment or obligation, provided we do not identify you publicly without permission.

11. Data protection

11.1 Our separate roles

For account administration, billing, security, support, service communications and our own legal obligations, we act as a controller. Our Privacy Notice explains this processing.

When we process PA, worker or other Customer Content solely to provide the Service on behalf of the employer or authorised representative, that employer or representative is the controller and we act as processor. Sections 11.2 to 11.8 are the data-processing terms required for that processing.

11.2 Processing details and instructions

The subject matter, duration, nature and purpose of processing, the types of personal data and the categories of individuals are set out in Schedule 1.

We will process Customer Content only on the controller's documented instructions, including instructions given by authorised use of the Service and these Terms, unless UK law requires otherwise. If legally permitted, we will tell the controller before carrying out processing required by law. We will notify the controller if, in our opinion, an instruction infringes applicable data-protection law.

11.3 Confidentiality and security

We will ensure that people authorised to process Customer Content are bound by confidentiality obligations. Taking account of the state of the art, implementation costs and the nature, scope, context and purposes of processing, we will maintain appropriate technical and organisational measures designed to protect Customer Content against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure or access.

11.4 Assistance and incidents

Taking account of the nature of the processing and the information available to us, we will provide reasonable assistance to help the controller:

• respond to requests by individuals exercising their data-protection rights;
• meet applicable security, personal-data-breach, impact-assessment and prior-consultation obligations; and
• demonstrate compliance with the controller's relevant obligations.

We will notify the Account Owner without undue delay after becoming aware of a personal-data breach affecting Customer Content and will provide information reasonably available to us. The controller remains responsible for deciding whether notifications to the ICO or affected individuals are required.

11.5 Sub-processors

The controller gives us general written authorisation to use sub-processors to provide the Service. Our current core service providers are identified in the Privacy Notice or another sub-processor list linked from it.

We will give the Account Owner at least 14 days' advance notice by email or an in-Service notice before appointing or replacing a sub-processor that will process Customer Content, except where urgent action is reasonably necessary to protect the Service or comply with law. The controller may object within that period on reasonable data-protection grounds. We will discuss the objection in good faith and, if no reasonable solution is available, either avoid using that sub-processor for the affected processing or allow the controller to end the affected subscription and receive an appropriate refund for unused prepaid time.

We will enter into a written agreement with each sub-processor that imposes materially equivalent data-protection obligations. We remain responsible to the controller for the sub-processor's performance of those obligations.

11.6 International transfers

We will not transfer Customer Content outside the United Kingdom unless the transfer complies with applicable data-protection law, including by relying on adequacy regulations or appropriate safeguards where required. Information about relevant transfer safeguards is provided in the Privacy Notice or on request.

11.7 Information and audits

We will make available information reasonably necessary to demonstrate compliance with this section. Where available, we may first provide current independent audit reports, certifications, security summaries or responses to reasonable questionnaires.

If that information is not reasonably sufficient, the controller may conduct an audit, itself or through an independent qualified auditor, no more than once in any 12-month period unless a personal-data breach, regulator request or credible evidence of material non-compliance justifies an additional audit. The controller must give at least 30 days' notice where practicable, ensure the auditor is bound by confidentiality, minimise disruption and avoid access to other customers' data. The controller will bear its audit costs unless the audit identifies our material non-compliance, in which case we will bear our reasonable proportion of those costs. Nothing in this paragraph restricts a regulator's legal powers.

11.8 Return and deletion

At the end of the Service, the controller may export Customer Content during the 30-day read-only period described in section 12. At the controller's written request, and subject to technical feasibility, we will return or delete Customer Content earlier. After that period, we will delete or irreversibly anonymise Customer Content from active systems within 30 days, unless UK law requires retention. Copies in protected backups may remain until overwritten in the ordinary backup cycle, for no longer than 90 further days, and will remain protected and unavailable for ordinary use.

12. Suspension, account closure and data exit

12.1 Ending your account

You may ask us to close the account by emailing support@directpayments.app. We will verify the request where appropriate. If a subscription is still active, tell us whether you also wish to cancel its renewal.

12.2 Ending or suspending access by us

We may suspend or end access if:

• payment remains overdue;
• you materially or repeatedly breach these Terms;
• use of the Service creates a material security, legal or safeguarding risk;
• we are required to do so by law or a competent authority; or
• we permanently discontinue the Service.

Where reasonably possible, we will explain the reason and give you an opportunity to fix a breach. We may act immediately where necessary to protect people, data, the Service or other users.

If we discontinue the paid Service for reasons not caused by your breach, we will give reasonable notice and refund the appropriate proportion of any prepaid fee for the period after the Service ends.

12.3 Export window

When paid access ends, the employer workspace will normally become read-only for 30 days so the Account Owner can download available records and reports. PA users may lose access when paid access ends. After the 30-day period, access will end and deletion will proceed under section 11.8.

The Account Owner is responsible for exporting records needed for employment, payroll, tax, funding, insurance, audit or legal purposes before the export window expires. We will give reasonable help with an export request, but bespoke recovery or conversion work may be chargeable if agreed in advance.

Sections intended to continue after termination—including ownership, confidentiality, data exit, liability and general terms—will remain in effect.

13. Our responsibility to you

We are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breach of these Terms or our failure to use reasonable care and skill. Loss or damage is foreseeable if it was obvious that it would happen or both you and we knew it might happen when the contract was made.

We are not responsible for:

• loss caused by inaccurate, incomplete or late information supplied by you or another authorised user;
• an employment, payroll, funding, tax or legal decision made by you or a third party;
• a payroll-provider, council or other third party failing to receive, accept or act on information;
• loss that you could reasonably have avoided by following our instructions, checking an export, keeping an independent copy or contacting us promptly; or
• business losses, including loss of profit, revenue, opportunity or business interruption, where you use the Service wholly or mainly for purposes connected with a trade, business, craft or profession.

We do not exclude or limit liability where it would be unlawful to do so, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or breach of rights that cannot legally be excluded.

14. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms for legal, security, technical or service reasons. We will post the updated Terms and change the date at the top.

If a change materially affects an active paid subscription, we will give reasonable advance notice by email or in the Service. A materially adverse change will normally take effect at the next renewal unless it is required sooner by law or is reasonably necessary to address an urgent security or operational risk. If you do not accept a materially adverse change, you may cancel before it takes effect.

15. Notices, complaints and support

For support, cancellation, data-protection enquiries or complaints, email support@directpayments.app or write to:

Direct Payments HR
Novella Apartments 301, 15 Stanley Street, Salford, M3 5GT

Please include your name, account email and a clear description of the issue. Do not send passwords or unnecessary medical, financial or identity information.

We aim to acknowledge a complaint within two business days and provide a substantive response within 10 business days. If we need longer, we will explain why and provide an expected response date.

16. General terms

If a court or relevant authority finds part of these Terms unlawful or unenforceable, the remaining parts will continue in effect.

If we delay enforcing these Terms, we may still enforce them later. A delay does not waive our rights.

You may not transfer your rights or obligations under these Terms without our written agreement. We may transfer our rights and obligations to another organisation, but we will tell you in writing and the transfer will not reduce your rights. If you reasonably object to a transfer that materially disadvantages you, you may end the subscription and receive an appropriate refund for unused prepaid time.

Only you and we have rights under these Terms. No other person may enforce them under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.

These Terms, the checkout information and any documents expressly incorporated into them form the agreement between you and us concerning the Service.

These Terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. If you are a consumer resident elsewhere in the United Kingdom, you also retain the benefit of any mandatory protections provided by the law where you live. You may bring proceedings in the courts of the part of the United Kingdom where you live. We may bring proceedings against you only in a court that has jurisdiction under applicable consumer law.

Schedule 1 — Details of processing carried out for employers

Model cancellation form

Complete and send this form only if you wish to cancel the contract during the statutory cancellation period. You may instead send any clear statement containing the same information.