Hi,
I’ve been caring for my mum for 2 and a half years. I get carers allowance and income support. Now, upto recently my mum has paid my bus fare when we have needed to travel and she now has a bus pass. My brother has kicked off saying I should be paying travel expenses as I’m the carer. Is he right or am I right?? Please help!!
EVERTHING in the way of costs you incur should be paid by mum, that’s the sort of thing disability benefits should cover in my opinion.
Have you checked to see if you can travel for free? It’s very much a postcode lottery but definitely worth checking out.
Be wary of receiving monies from one’s caree for anything other than expenses :
Hi Hazel,
Welcome to the forum.
I would say if the outing was for your Mum’s benefit e.g. an appointment, to buy her some toiletries, to take her to visit her friends etc buts he needs you to go along and support her, then, she should pay your fare. This is what would happen if you were a paid carer. If your mum is accompanying you on an outing of your choosing; to go out for cofeee, buy something you need etc then you should pay your own fare. This informal arrangement isn’t anything to do with your brother, unless he is the one travelling with your Mum.
It’s definitely worth checking out the link from NHShater.
Melly1
Is mum disabled?
You could always suggest to your brother that if he doesn’t like your arrangement with mum, that HE could take mum out!
Why does your brother feel he has a right to get involved in this? Is he worried about his inheritance?! It really, really annoyed me when my brothers, who might not see mum for a whole year, would tell me what more I should be doing for mum, so brothers are a touchy subject with me. One has now died, the other hasn’t spoken to me since I gave him his share of mum’s estate.
She has limited abilities. It started over a trip out on Friday because I didn’t offer to pay for my own meal yet I’m paying for half my mums and asked for my brother to pay the other half as its an early mother’s day treat.
All of my outings with my mum are for her between appointments and food shopping. She doesn’t go out alot. I just wasnt sure if the carers allowance was to cover my travel or not.
She only pays my bus fares if we go out
I can only travel for free if my mum had a bus pass with a ‘c’ on it and she doesn’t as yet have this
That’s a “Companion bus pass”.
My son with severe learning difficulties has one as he can’t use public transport unless someone goes with him.
Not every county/LA issues them. I’m in Hampshire, they do.
In theory, it only applies to neighbouring authorities Hampshire have a “reciprocal agreement with”, however by chance I’ve discovered that the bus machine which reads my son’s card automatically recognises it as a companion pass, so I go free. Even as far away as Telford!
Just to be complete it applies to rural Hampshire, where BB and I both live but not to the Southampton and Portsmouth urban areas, hence my comment about postcode lotteries. Also my partner’s was issued without the c on it even though it should have been. They spelled his name wrong too. Didn’t bother renewing it as buses round our way now are so few and far between it isn’t worth the cost of a photo and a postage stamp.
A few weeks ago we were on a London bus and I forgot to get my Oyster card read. The inspector who inevitably got on was very reasonable and just got me to pay when I volunteered that I’d forgotten. Another passenger was thrown off the bus for the same. I suppose the advantage of Oyster cards is he could see I’d paid for previous journeys.
He thought it was dealing with the wheelchair that had stopped me paying. I was actually distracted by two cute dogs in the next seat.