mum with dementia and adult special needs sister benefit advice please

bishboshbluebell

A bit of back ground. my 87 year old mum gets a state pension and has 1 lodger to help pay the bills etc. My 41 y old sister gets DLA and income support. As my sisters paid carer I get paid by the ILF for 13 hours help( I do many many more hours than that). My mums condition is deteriorating, I am needed to help more and more. I am very happy to continue to do this, but as well as caring for mum and sis, I also have my own family to care for and commitments to a job l love. I have reduced my job to 4 days a week (to care for my sister - no day care 1 day a wk), but l am needed to help with sis on the mornings she goes to day care as well as doing all their housey stuff. My questions are:
is my mum entitled to any other benefits? As her condition deteriorates, would there be any money available to pay for me to work less so that l could be there for them? I have no family to help me so the responsibility is mine. I am juggling everything at the moment - finishing work at 4pm, straight round to mums to cook dinner, tidy up, laundry, house stuff, bath sis, tuck her in, etc :quite often I don't get home till 8pm. I do have a lady that helps out when l am feeling really kn***rd and sits with sister when i take mum to church. my experience with 3 agencies has been appalling - not turning up, not speaking english - using them just creates more stress! Sorry i've rambled on, but l'm hoping someone here can give me a bit of advice. Thanks

littleredhen

you might find some help here

Mrs_Boo_Boo

Not too knowledgable,but you should be able to apply for attendance allowance for mum. Also contact Social Services as I believe you can get direct payments for your mum so either you can be paid to look after her or someone else.
Is there a local Alzheimer's Society,Age Uk or disability advice centre who can advise and help you around the benefits minefield.

benefitbaby

Hi, could Mum qualify for Attendance Allowance or Pension Credit? http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/benefits_e/benefits_older_people_ew.htm

Mojisola

Do they both have Social Workers? Have they both had their needs assessed? Have you had a Carer's Assessment done?

bishboshbluebell

thanks - never heard of the carers trust so will have a good look around the website and look around the other links. Cheers

bishboshbluebell

sister has a social worker - she/we had an assessment back in aug, soc wrkr phoned to say she was 'tidying the report up' but still havn;t heard anything! Having said that she is very pro active and helpful when i have called about care issues. No social worker for mum - how do l begin to get one? Since mums recent diagnosis, l can see she has deteriorated and things need to be put in place to help us all. I phoned the dementia centre and have been put on a waiting list.....

Mojisola

bishboshbluebell wrote: »

No social worker for mum - how do l begin to get one? Since mums recent diagnosis, l can see she has deteriorated and things need to be put in place to help us all. I phoned the dementia centre and have been put on a waiting list.....

There will be something like the "Older Persons' Team" to contact at the council - depending on what name is the fashion at the moment.

bishboshbluebell

thanks will google my council.

princessdon

you have to ask for help. I know it's hard, I did this with my relative and virtually run myself into the ground. Tired .. that was yesterday's news.

She now has help, AA and carers. I don't want this as I'd want to do this but I like you have a family of my own and work.

I was very reluctant (as was the family member) to accept outside help, but they do adjust and I am "dumped" for the outside family member help regularly now (with love of course) as I'll say I'll do or get XX and am told, "no need YY is doing that".

They really were fantastic. They even worked me with down to the hours I can do and were very accomodating.

merlin68

If you earn less than £100 a week then you can claim carers allowance. We need to know family income ie yours and your partner to be able to advise.