Benefits of being a carer
- Thread starter Noorza
- Start date
Going back to the original question... (fun as it is to discuss babies and yellow lines!)
The "multivouchers" which we get from Lancashire county council are classed as a non-meanstested benefit for me, the carer, rather than for Mother: each allows either 4 hours of care or a much-discounted night in residential care. We got 28 for the first couple of years, then 42 this year. Even though Mother is lucky enough to have quite a lot of savings, the argument "Well we've got the vouchers from the council, it would be waste not to use them" was really helpful in encouraging her to go in for her first respite break! (Similar argument worked well recently: trying out the local care home's day-care option, I pointed out "They charge the same for the day whether you go for breakfast or midmorning, so you might as well have breakfast there as we're paying for it", and that got her up and into the car so that by 8:30am I was back here knowing that she was safe and well-looked-after for the day and we could pick her up late into the evening and have a relaxed day out!)
Related to stuff about bathrooms etc: we went to buy a commode for Mother, and the helpful chap in the shop said we should talk to social services and get a prescription for it, which we did. So it's worth discussing any needed equipment, even if smaller-scale than a whole bathroom refit. (That's not a specific carer's benefit, just a saving for the carer + cared-for household, I suppose, so not exactly on-thread. Ah well.) Pam
The "multivouchers" which we get from Lancashire county council are classed as a non-meanstested benefit for me, the carer, rather than for Mother: each allows either 4 hours of care or a much-discounted night in residential care. We got 28 for the first couple of years, then 42 this year. Even though Mother is lucky enough to have quite a lot of savings, the argument "Well we've got the vouchers from the council, it would be waste not to use them" was really helpful in encouraging her to go in for her first respite break! (Similar argument worked well recently: trying out the local care home's day-care option, I pointed out "They charge the same for the day whether you go for breakfast or midmorning, so you might as well have breakfast there as we're paying for it", and that got her up and into the car so that by 8:30am I was back here knowing that she was safe and well-looked-after for the day and we could pick her up late into the evening and have a relaxed day out!)
Related to stuff about bathrooms etc: we went to buy a commode for Mother, and the helpful chap in the shop said we should talk to social services and get a prescription for it, which we did. So it's worth discussing any needed equipment, even if smaller-scale than a whole bathroom refit. (That's not a specific carer's benefit, just a saving for the carer + cared-for household, I suppose, so not exactly on-thread. Ah well.) Pam
