Help for my mum..

therobbie

I have no idea if this is the right place to post this, but since helping my mum with money is the ultimate goal, it seemed as good a place as any, but it will involve subjects that could be posted elsewhere.

So my mum had worked all her life, she got her first job a week after leaving school and continued to work for 25+ years, including working 3 different jobs at one point when I was in my early teens.

About 3 years ago, she had to leave work because of depression and anxiety, and she went on incapacity benefit. Various meetings with doctors & with the jobcentre all confirmed she wasn't in a fit state to work, and so she tried to claim her pension early due to medical reasons but this was refused, and she fought this for a long time, and it was refused more than once, but it was taking it's toll on her, and due to the mental illness, she finds things like phonecalls and chasing things up difficult, so she give up.

Now I recently moved back home after splitting up with my girlfriend, and I've instantly had to contribute quite a lot of money to the household, and I'm more than willing to do that, like I say, she was working 3 jobs when I was younger, but I'm worried about my mum's financial state, I'm worried she can't keep up with the mortgage and I'm basically trying to find a way she can .. find some more money.

Illness wise, she's a lot better than she was, she find's a reason to get out of bed in a morning, but she's definitely not in the right state of mind to go back to work. I don't know if she ever will be.

Basically, I'm wondering about ways my mum can help herself financially without going back to a job ??

I realise this is vague, but I'm not sure where else to start and maybe this vague post can help me narrow down what I need to find out. I've also just realised there's probably a pension section on this forum, so I'll speak to my mum and we'll post on there to find out information about medical retirement.

Sorry this is really long, thank you for any help!

aneres

Hi, I haven't any advice but I didn't want to read and run.

You sound like a really good Son.

I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will be along to help.

gb12345

Obviously, she can do the simple things like surveys and cashback sites, but they aren't going to provide much of an income.

Does she have any skills that she could use to work from home? What job did she do before she stopped working?

claret_mike

In terms of a starting point...

You need to see if your Mum wants your help...Do you know she is struggling with her mortgage repayments etc. If you want to start somewhere then I would do a statement of affairs (a budget detailing income and outgoings) to see where she is in that respect.

Secondly, you need to ensure that if you have moved back in, it does not impact on things like benefits/council tax.

With regards to upping her income, again it depends what her current income is because if its means tested etc, will earning more impact on the means testing.

There are lots of ways you can up income - the easiest is by reducing expenditure. The next can be done by looking at this board there are lots of suggestions on how to earn a bit more money. I don't think anything will break the bank though. £10-30 a month perhaps from what I have read. It may be a good thread to start to see what their average monthly income is from doing their online work from here.

As I say, lots of information but if you dont want to get a comprehensive answer and want to up income - plenty of info on here.

System

I don't have a huge amount of ideas unfortunately besides surveys, cashback sites etc that you'll find posted in this 'up your income' thread, just wanted to say good luck to you.

haybel19

selling unwanted items on ebay? Mystery shopping?

techspec

To get your pension early you need to be declared unable to work ever again, at least in the job you were doing when the illness hit. Not an easy task with mental illness.

Has she been migrated onto ESA OK - there are lots of stories on here of mental illness being ignored?

therobbie

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I'm going to sit down with my mum today and we'll do a budget, see what her incoming is & what her outgoing is. I'll find out exactly what benefit she is on, and how earning money could affect it.

It seems like cutting back is the best way to free up some money, so we'll look at that.

I know she's strongly considering selling the house, but I may post that on the mortgage section, after we've talked today.

techspec wrote: »

To get your pension early you need to be declared unable to work ever again, at least in the job you were doing when the illness hit. Not an easy task with mental illness.

Has she been migrated onto ESA OK - there are lots of stories on here of mental illness being ignored?

I'll get back to you on that.

therobbie

After doing a budget with my mum, I've discovered she's not really helping herself, in some ways, she has quite a self destructive view on her financial situation, but I think that's largely down to the mental illness.

She's basically spending all her incoming money monthly, and the last couple of months, there's been unexpected payments (car breaking down) and that's why she's had to borrow more money off me.

She'll be ok in the short term, but I need to try and get her in a more forward thinking state of mind, because I worry about her future.

Thanks for the advice everyone

patman99

I'm not sure how tech-savvy your mum is, but buying her 'YNAB' and helping her to put all her incomings and outgoings on it from the last 6 months worth of bank statements will help her understand where all the money is going and how much she is short each month.

I would also suggest (if your mum agrees) that you put her SoA on the 'Debt Free Wannabe' board. There are some brilliant people on there who will help.