Benefits

Benefits, finances and funding
1

Hi

I wonder if anymore could point me in the right direction.

I have been caring for my parents for the last 5 years, I am also a single parent with a 5 year old girl.

Last year out of the blue my father was diagnosed with leukaemia in May 19. He passed away in July 19. Since then my mother who had a stroke 8 years ago and was diagnosed in Aug 19 with vascular dementia has gone rapidly down hill she is currently in hospital and we have been advised she will need to go into a nursing home. She did not meet the criteria for CHC so she will be a self funded.

I’m her Carer but because she is in hospital I can no longer receive Carers allowance & income support. The benefits they are telling me that I can get are JSA. After everything what I have had to deal with I am suffering with depression and anxiety and still haven’t had time to grieve my father because of trying to sort things out with my mum.

I’m not sleeping properly I go to the hospital everyday still because the stroke my mum had affected her speech. English was a second language. She only regained a slurred speech and speaks in Sicilian dialect. And the Italian interpreters do not understand her.


My head isn’t in the right place to be thinking of workings this precise moment in time.


Can anyone advise what I can do


Thanks
Anna

2

Hi Anna.

When it comes to personal problems , the DWP take no prisoners.

8 weeks from the date on which the qualifying benefit triggering CA ceases … back to that nasty world outside.

It literally is a case of sink or swim.

An online benefits calculator which will reveal what is available out there in your new circumstances :

https://www.entitledto.co.uk/

Crunch some numbers … any problem with the results so revealed ?

Council tax discount revealed ?

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She did not meet the criteria for CHC so she will be a self funded.

Interesting … was the Assessment done by the book ?

MAIN thread and relevant section :

https://www.carersuk.org/forum/support-and-advice/all-about-caring/chc-coughlan-grogan-judgements-nhs-contuing-healthcare-nhs-fnc-hospital-discharges-all-under-this-one-thread-35998

CHC : WHAT IS IT / QUALIFICATION / ASSESSMENTS / VIDEO ( PROFESSOR LUKE CLEMENTS )

Any doubts … the following sections on the MAIN thread :
CHC : APPLIED FOR BUT REFUSED ?
NHS NURSING FUNDED CARE : AN ALTERNATIVE TO BOTH CHC / NHS CONTINUING HEALTHCARE

DEMENTIA ?

Housing ?

Nothing mentioned … what is the precise position ?

Mother … sole home owner ? Tenant ? Social / b.t.l. ?

If " Self funding " , advice sought from AGE UK ???

https://www.ageuk.org.uk/

The very last thing you want is to be homeless … or having a debt secured on the property like a millstone around your neck ?

Others will be along to add their insights.

3

The local authority will need to do a financial assessment for your mother before she is deemed to be self funding.

4

Does mum own her house?
Were you and your daughter living with her as your permanent home?
Does mum have over £23,000 in savings?

What do you want to happen now? Given mum’s language problems, would it be possible for you to care for mum in her home if you had a lot of support?

Was a formal Continuing Healthcare Assessment done, with the decision made at a meeting which you attended? If not, it was an unlawful meeting, and they need to have another one to comply with the rules!

5

Go to your local Citizens Advice - they can do a full Benefits check for you and tell you what you are entitled to and help you claim. (JSA no longer exists unless you are talking new style JSA which is based on NI contributions paid; likely you would have to claim Universal Credit - Citizens Advice have specialists in this area).

6

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Go to your local Citizens Advice

Many are snowed under … that problem is spreading rapidly … best to initiate contact online :
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/

As for benefit calculations , the CAB tend to use the same sources we recommend … online ones.

( Like most other organisations , the simplier stuff is being made available online … benefit calculators a prime example … thus
freeing up diminishing members of staff to concentrate their energies on the heavyweight stuff at out … and , at the same time ,
reducing waiting times to days as opposed to weeks in some areas.

Local CABs are very much affected by the LA cutbacks as any other organisation. )

7

Chris - I agree. The on-line calculators are great and are what CA will use (though they use their own version). And as you say, you can ring CA (but they will often refer you to the nearest CA offices for F2F advice)… CA also have a lot of training and other resources at their fingertips to help people through the benefits maze. If someone is comfortable using and interpreting the on line resources, great. And maybe it depends on the area that you are in - but certainly where I am, we always will help and advise people F2F with problems - they might just have to wait a short while to get seen.

8

Yep … it really is a post code lottery when it comes to actual CAB presence.

Worksop … my manor … since 1 November 2010.

2010 … old library … 5 hours a day , 4 days a week.

2015 … 4 hours a day , 2 days a week.

2018 … closed , nearest one Mansfield … 12 miles away … either 3 buses , or take the train … all 1 an hour services.

Latest waiting time figure from Mansfield ( September 2018 ) … 8 working days … down a bit as UC rolled out a little while ago … closer to 10 days
earlier … open 3 days a week down there , 6 hours a day.

( Not so much zero hour contract work in Mansfield when compared with Worksop. If it were on par , double that waiting time ??? )

If nothing else , the switch of the basics to online comes with another problem … Internet access … for the CAB , they cannot win.

Local Weatherspoons yesterday … Last of the Summer Astronomers meeting … section in one corner …UC CLAIMANTS … 2 volunteers with laptops ,
9 scattered around in the queue … updating UC journals and sourcing information on the Internet to answer queries … basically what I do on this forum
and for the local food bank / neighbours.

At least those 2 volunteers get all the coffee they can drink free !
( Main library with the greatest Internet access on the manor still closed no thanks to the flooding on 8 November 2018 … set to reopen in the summer. )

Biggest headaches ?

UC … zero hour contracts … tapers on every extra hour worked … try telling a neighbour for every one hour extra worked , he could lose 63% of it in income
tax / NI and deductions from other income related benefits !!!

And … that’s just Worksop … an ex mining town wherein 30,000+ lost souls … and exiles to include meself … reside.

In my case , make that damned as opposed to lost ?

9

Wow Chris - that is horrendous. At least where I am we are relatively still OK on opening hours: thanks very much to volunteers - but still have to have paid staff to do some of the work/supervise. Unfortunately, as you have said, funding is getting cut and affecting service (even though it is a charity, can only operate if it receives funds). Very sad :frowning:

10

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Wow Chris - that is horrendous.

Compared with several other manors where I have contacts off forum ( Ex steelworks in Redcar being a major source ) ,
we , in Worksop , have nothing to complain about … I wholly agree with that one … try the GRIMETHORPE thread :

https://www.carersuk.org/forum/news-and-campaigns/latest-caring-news/grimethorpe-other-blighted-areas-your-high-street-modern-day-reality-for-some-updates-on-the-wastelands-29593?hilit=grimethorpe

Only yesterday , one of our members , Les , who has been in Worksop since the Romans were the landlords , remarked how the population is ageing
… those younger generation ones only here because of the lower house prices , commuting into Nottingham / Sheffield / Lincoln to work.

The more one travels outside the Magic Roundabout ( M 25 ) heading north , the more pronounced the trend.

Castleford / Wakefield / Pontefract , West Yorkshire … another prime example.

One common factor ?

Closure of those dinosaur industries … coal / steel / fishing / car manufacturing … the highest wage earners … never replaced at anything approaching
those wage levels … hence the exodus of the more qualified workers to seek better conditions elsewhere.

… and readers might ask why I champion the 4 million or so of us surviving below the Official Poverty Line ?

11

I live in Durham! :slight_smile:

12

Outside of Durham / Darlington / Sunderland , an economic wasteland ?

( Always several thousand anxious ears / faces when the Nissan UK press officer calls a press conference ?

Most close their ears whenever the football results get to the Stadium of Light ? )

There’s always a presence of North Nottinghamshire ex miners at the annual Durham rally.

Even that pink rat of an ex Sedgefield m.p.was sighted one year … through his disguise … so I am told.

The PFI merchant … saddling the NHS with ever increasing debts … not forgetting far too many schools.

That GRIMETHORPE thread of mine … Horden features prominently early on.

An old contact of mine lives in Bishop Auckland … his father was at Wembley for all 3 FA Amateur cup finals in 1955 - 1957.

Nearest my contact got was Hatfield … too late for a Led Zeppelin concert at Earls Court !

Purely for the record.

13

Hello and welcome!

Does she own the house? Do you live with her or not? What do you want to happen next?

Has she had a continuing needs assessment done yet? If you did not attend the meeting please ask for another one as it is illegal otherwise. Go to your local CAB office and see if they can do a benefits check with you as well. Keep us updated!

14

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Go to your local CAB office >

Back to square one as far as local branches of the CAB go ?