At last my daughter and her boyfriend have been offered a flat! It is not exactly where we hoped for and has no garden but it is very spacious and light and is on a bus route and she can walk to shops etc.
We don’t have an allocated social worker now and due to lockdown etc haven’t seen or heard from anybody since last March. I do seem to recall them mentioning a package of support when people with LD start living independently. Can anybody confirm this please or point me in the right direction.
The flat is a housing association one and needs completely decorating and carpeting throughout. The Association apparently provide paint packs, brushes etc. But flooring will be a big expense as they are large rooms.
That’s good news. Contact the LD Team at Social Services for a Needs Assessment and Care Plan. Having the flat redecorated may count as a Disability Related Expenditure, check with SSD and get this in writing first!!
I did as you suggested Bowlingbun and am still waiting for them to get back to me. Trouble is while they are faffing about we could be getting things done.
After nearly 5 years of non stop pestering my daughter and her boyfriend have finally got the keys to a spacious flat and now she is barely interested. I think it’s all too much for her and she can’t handle it at all. I can see this is going to be a long, long process and is going to require a lot of patience on my part. Can’t get a phone assessment with social services until week on Monday. Have ordered all the paint, brushes etc.
Penny,
the reality it has probably hit! Will her boyfriend move in ASAP - then she has a reason to visit the flat - and may start to enjoy the independence etc.
This is so much more involved than I imagined! The SW arranged for the Welfare Rights Dept at the council to ring me which he did this morning. Talk about confusing but he is going to put it all in writing. They will take her ESA off her but she will keep her PIP. They then have to do a joint claim on Universal Credit which he says will include the following elements - personal allowance, housing element, health element and maybe carers element.
No luck with painting help or carpets so that’s down to us.
When we did the affordability check with the Housing Association I said that she was getting ESA and PIP and they didn’t say anything about her losing the ESA.
We will also have to sort out electric, council tax, water etc too.
I have a phone meeting with OT in a little while and a zoom assessment next week with my daughter, myself, OT and social workers.
We too in our area have a handyman do jobs team, some employed workers and volunteers, they help with household tasks, painting houses, transport going shopping or to the doctors surgery.
Is there nothing like that in your area?
Often as well there are schemes through the courts, if a person is given say 100 hours community service and they do a trade, painter decorator, gardener etc, they are sent to paint peoples houses or do the gardening.
These obviously are not major criminals, minor offences, speeding and such like.
Penny, your daughter shouldn’t have to pay Council Tax as she has “severe mental impairment” and is exempt. Easy to claim. How about asking the local Scouts or the Rotary Club if they can help with the decorating?
We have started the decorating ourselves. My knees are killing me tonight.
I am totally bogged down with all this benefit stuff and I still don’t really understand why they are taking ESA off her when that is Employment Support Allowance and nothing to do with moving in with someone as far as I know.
Someone from the council has sent me emails about this but I still don’t understand it.
This is really getting me down and on top of all this I heard today that the package of support they always promised will not be in place by the time she is hoping to move in. There is no way on this earth she can be expected to move in with no support at all.
Penny, she is being transferred to UC from ESA due to her change in circumstances as she will now be living with her partner.
UC will offer her a loan as UC is paid in arrears and therefore she will have a gap between ESA ending and UC starting. If at all possible avoid the loan otherwise it will be deducted off each months UC payment until it is paid off.
Thanks Melly. But ESA is to do with employment not living with someone isn’t it. We won’t be going anywhere near loans. Her boyfriend had one from UC when he first went on it and was paying for a long time.
Penny, UC is replacing ESA. All new claimants automatically go onto UC also anyone with a change of circumstances. UC can also be paid to those who work.
Your daughter’s change of circumstance is likely that she now needs to claiming for house benefit as she is moving in with her partner and they will share the rent.
In some areas they have discontinued ESA altogether and moved everyone over to UC.
Well yesterday I spent a couple of hours doing the council application for Council Tax benefit. talk about difficult! i was nearly crying at the half way stage. i had to answer so many questions like when did she start on ESA, PIP etc and just wading through paperwork to find the answers too ages and I was stressing that I would get timed out. Then I had to get my son to come and upload passport pics, Tax forms etc. If he hadn’t been here I could never have done it.
My next problem is getting on to Universal Credit to do a joint claim. Also I don’t know how I am going to tell UC what bank account to use because I don’t really want them to have a joint account. daughter has savings and boyfriend has none and likes to “treat” himself and is terrible with money. We all discussed things and we thought if she paid the rent (by direct debit) and he paid council tax, food, electricity, water, TV licence etc. He also has to run his car to get to work. That would be roughly equal. There is so much to think about!