What I don't get is the carers get paid minimum to low wages yet the care homes charge an obscene amount of money.
@GAC
I'm just going to put this as a warning. Working cash in hand. If you get caught. All your benefits will be removed and you will be fined on top and forced to pay everything back.
I sympathise with your situation and the stress your obviously under. But things could get a lot worse if someone decides to poke their nose in.
I'd be honest and above board personally. It's your decision though but I wouldn't take the consequences of your actions lightly if caught. You could end up losing your home.
Your between a rock and a hard place. I hope you can improve your situation but I would think seriously before doing anything risky.
Carers have to be careful how they spend other people's money and 'paying themselves' from it, because if there's a fall-out in the extended family and the carer is reported (especially where power of attorney is concerned) there can be legal consequences. However, our family agreed early on that I didn't have to worry about chipping into every bill from my CA, because me being here actually saved Mum a small fortune in wasted utilities, food, and duplicate purchases.She also then used my nanna's state pension and disability living allowance for most household items and an extra source of income.
Surely it is just a bit of cash to help you out etc... Arguably in some situations would it not be better to get a job where you can work from home/have flexible hours etc.. or have more than one person dealing with the carer duties?
I mean if it were the state providing care then in most situations you're either going to get someone popping around for a quick visit to drop off a meal and/or help use the bathroom etc.. or you're talking care homes with one employee perhaps looking after a corridor full of old folks. I'm not sure it is feasible for the state to hand over huge sums employing people to look after their own relatives who they arguably perhaps ought to be helping anyway, it's partly a choice too - if said relative has assets then arguably they ought to be used to pay for professional carers, shouldn't necessarily be down to taxpayers to sort out (especially given the portion of assets controlled by the order generation currently).
Carers have to be careful how they spend other people's money and 'paying themselves' from it, because if there's a fall-out in the extended family and the carer is reported (especially where power of attorney is concerned) there can be legal consequences. However, our family agreed early on that I didn't have to worry about chipping into every bill from my CA, because me being here actually saved Mum a small fortune in wasted utilities, food, and duplicate purchases.
So you're right that the overall household position is what matters when it comes to being warm, safe & fed, and between my Carer's Allowance, Mum's pension, Pension Credit, and Attendance Allowance, I have about £290 a week to manage. It's hard to complain about that, even though little of it is 'mine' and a big chunk of that goes towards the carer help I need so I can leave the house sometimes.
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You are then left with putting them in a home to be looked after poorly and living miserably or you looking after them and living miserably yourself. It's a lose/lose situation unless your selfish and only care about yourself
Those care facilities will never look after them to the same level you will.
In fact there's been multiple stories in the news and on TV of serial abusers, etc working in them. Would you risk that on a dear family member?
It's very much a personal choice. Just be glad you have never been put in the position to make the choice.
Absolutely, the biggest issue that I remember was an absolute lack of freedom for my mum. No holidays in over a decade and a life spent dedicated to someone else. We often look back and wonder if it really benefitted both my mum and my nanna to have gone on that way so long.
You could have paid £10k in carers allowance but the money meant very little when you have little freedom to enjoy it.
That's for caring for someone for 35+ hours per week.
In our case it was 24/7. You wouldn't get any time to yourself so impossible to do both that and even a part time job from home.
It depends a lot on the person's health and disabilities or illness.
Well yeah, I mean it seems doubtful that it would actually be 35 hours per week for example, let alone 24/7 in most cases. I get there are exceptions here and it depends on disabilities etc.. but in most cases, there are only so many times someone needs food or needs to go to the bathroom etc...
In the case of one of my relatives, one relative moved in to help her and the deal was that she inherited the house, still had carers come in to visit etc... too. It avoided the need for a care home for a few years save for just the last few weeks of her life where she did move into one for palliative care.
Well yeah, I mean it seems doubtful that it would actually be 35 hours per week for example, let alone 24/7 in most cases. I get there are exceptions here and it depends on disabilities etc.. but in most cases, there are only so many times someone needs food or needs to go to the bathroom etc...
In the case of one of my relatives, one relative moved in to help her and the deal was that she inherited the house, still had carers come in to visit etc... too. It avoided the need for a care home for a few years save for just the last few weeks of her life where she did move into one for palliative care.
It's more they are a danger to themselves if left unsupervised for long periods of time.
So are you saying that because some only need 1-2 hours of care a week then it's justifiable everyone gets the same?
My mum has to cook my meals, clean my room, wash my clothes, supervise me while showering, arrange my meds and more, all while holding down a full time job. Her job only pays £19k a year, but she still can’t get any carers top up for looking after me.There's a massive list of exceptions.
Someone who's blind.
Memory loss (short term).
Paralysed.
Brain damage.
Bad stroke.
The list goes on and on.
There will be plenty of people that require constant care. It's not just a handful across a large population it will be tens of thousands.
Was there not a guy on here who had to care for his partner who was terminally ill and ocuk hooked him up with a grand tour of the building and a few members pooled some money or gave him free parts for his upgrade.
For every person who's mobile there will be another who either isn't or safe to leave alone.
Short term memory I've heard of a story someone walked out the house and was never seen again. He did have his name and address stitched to his jacket and they found the jacket somewhere but never found him.
What if he left the gas on?
Anyone who isn't mobile will require constant care too. Bathroom trips, showers / baths, food, going anywhere and doing anything. Like getting out of bed, sitting up, etc.
For all of that you get £50 a week. No matter how easy or bad the situation is. There are no tiers to being a carer and the allowance.
So are you saying that because some only need 1-2 hours of care a week then it's justifiable everyone gets the same?
Many will eventually have to make the choice as they won't have the facilities at home that a nursing home will have. Like 24/7 care, Since you have to sleep sometimes.
Also specialized lifts, beds, bathrooms etc.
Often people will not be supported by siblings. Which obviously destroys relationships in a family.
Yup, I appreciate that - that's perhaps why in some cases simply having a multigenerational household is sufficient, especially if say dad goes out to work and mum looks after the house/kids + grandma for example.
No I'm just saying that the vast majority of people don't require 1 on 1 care 24/7, I don't have a hard opinion on whether to scale the allowance.