Carers' Allowance

[charlie10]

I need some advice on Carer's Allowance please. I'm trying to push my brother, whose wife was diagnosed with Alz last year, to check his benefits eligibility. My SiL is, according to him, able to get the bus into the nearest town and do shopping by herself (but she often buys stuff they don't use/have already got 6 mths supply of). I think at home she's sort of ok but he has said he has to check she's turned the gas off/got her keys etc and the gp stopped her driving a while ago.

He used to pop down to see my dad (100 miles away) to visit for a couple of days and also to accompany him if he had an invasive test. Fortunately dad is pretty fit and healthy and probably less likely to get any mental confusion than I am, so he will be driving up to my brother at Christmas. However it does show that my brother doesn't feel he can leave my SiL overnight, even if he is just keeping a weather eye on her. Does this count towards the 35 hrs caring he needs to get the CA? or does he need to wait until she is much less able? I have told him about Attendance Allowance, but he feels she's not bad enough for that either.

My brother is 63.....I'm not quite sure when his retirement date is, and he was made redundant a few years ago, so he's probably living on savings and/or benefit (he doesn't like to share personal stuff, so I have a lot of guessing to do, partly helped by quizzing dad wgen he's spoken to my brother). I'm not sure how old my SiL is.....I have a feeling she might be a little older.

Thanks to the forum I am aware of a lot of the financial help available, but somehow when it has a personal application my brain goes to sleep, and I also have to be sure I'm not getting mixed up with NZ stuff

 

[silver'lantern]

does she have a diagnosis of dementia? benefits are a minefield. Age makes a difference to what they can claim. if they are both still working age they can claim universal credit and wont get Attendance Allowance it will be PIP i think. and also carers if he has to support her for 35 hours or more.
if he wasnt there would she manage to run her home, take medication, choose appropriate clothing, prep and cook a meal, need prompts to do personal care and need watching over night any care support at all.
you can do an online benefits check to see what you are able to claim. and carers allowance has an online check too. but he would have to disclose his income on the check. so have to do it himself. PIP is not means tested. carers allowance you can claim and still earn a certain amount of money.
also a diagnosis of dementia gets a reduction in council tax and if they are claiming benefits and in rented accommodation there will be a rent allowance included if they are on universal credit
my advice would be to make an appointment with CAB or ageuk and ask for benefits advice, they help fill in the forms which can make all the difference to the claim.
there is also lots of info on line on the .GOV site and are benefit check forms that will suggest which can be claimed
you are best getting a proper check than rely on my word then you know its correct and up to date as it changes often and can seem complicated.

 

[canary]

People seem to think that only the "hands-on" stuff like helping them wash/shower, get dressed etc counts towards benefits - and its not true. Everything that they need to make sure they can live counts - even watching over them to make sure that they are safe and dealing with their finances counts.

I agree with @silver'lantern - the best people to advise are either Age UK or Citizens advice. Both have helped me with claim forms. When you are filling in forms for disability it is very easy to downgrade their needs. Its not nice putting down in black and white how bad they have become, but these people can do it for you and know how to do it, what counts, and all the buzz words to use.

 

[charlie10]

thank you for your replies @silver'lantern and @canary I can now put on my stern Big Sister face and nag him about going to CAB for further help. He didn't think he could claim for anything really, was surprised (and relieved) when I told him he wouldn't be homeless when it came to funding a care home, so hopefully I can encourage him to start investigating benefits. We lost the closeness of childhood when we left home, and moving thousands ofmiles away didn'thelp, but I hope that he will let me help in some small way by researching stuff for him and being an ear.....he is another carer who will have to deal with a not very happy relationship with grownup steps....I just hope they can all pull together for the sake of my SiL

 

[Rosettastone57]

thank you for your replies @silver'lantern and @canary I can now put on my stern Big Sister face and nag him about going to CAB for further help. He didn't think he could claim for anything really, was surprised (and relieved) when I told him he wouldn't be homeless when it came to funding a care home, so hopefully I can encourage him to start investigating benefits. We lost the closeness of childhood when we left home, and moving thousands ofmiles away didn'thelp, but I hope that he will let me help in some small way by researching stuff for him and being an ear.....he is another carer who will have to deal with a not very happy relationship with grownup steps....I just hope they can all pull together for the sake of my SiL

Hi @charlie10 as others have said, personal care isn't necessarily part of claiming carers allowance. I claimed it for looking after my mother-in-law and she was living on her own in her own home with carers three times a day . I am retired on a company pension, no state pension and mother-in-law was claiming AA.

I covered the 35 hours by spending the whole of Saturday even with carers present dealing with her. That meant doing all her shopping ,tidying her house helping with her finances and supervising and paying the gardener when he turned up on a Saturday. The rest of the hours were made up in the evenings during the week . The last carer would leave about 6:30 in the evening after making sure she had something to eat. I made sure the house was locked up her night-time clothes ready and if necessary put the vacuum round. Sometimes I supervised the podiatrist visit including making sure she was paid. She used to have regular visits in the day from the library service and the local church visited. I would make sure the house was ready for these visits tidying up supervising that the carer had done their jobs as well. In fact quite a lot of my time was spent chasing up the care agency and making sure they turned up on time

Then there was sorting out her online banking ,sorting out her dentist appointments which initially was a home visit which I had to supervise . Then there was liaising with the doctor surgery, the district nurses and organising any hospital transport. My mother-in-law liked to tell everybody that she was completely independent of course although nothing was further from the truth.