got to stop working

shopaholicz

Hi,
I'm needing some advice. My partner has just found out he has to have kidney dialysis 3-5 times a week. He's retired, but I'm 54 and still work full time. We are also foster carers, approved for 2 placements.

My partner has been offered home dialysis or hospital dialysis but needs someone at home with him for 5 hours every other day while he's doing dialysis. I won't be able to do this and continue working full time.

As I see them our choices are 1. I keep working full time, we stop fostering, and he chooses to go to hospital to have dialysis. 2. I stop working and continue fostering, which will allow me to be on hand to support home dialysis.

Working for someone else is guaranteed income and fostering isn't but we still have a mortgage to pay!

Does anyone know if there are any benefits we could claim if I have to stop work but we want to continue fostering? In all honesty it would break my heart to stop fostering. Also, would we have to wait 6 or 10 months to make a claim as I would have effectively given up my job voluntarily.

Anyone have any thoughts on which would be the best choice for us?

princessdon

Fostering counts as work for WTC, depending on your income to date will depend on how much you get.

Edit, just noticed your mortgage comment, that changes things as you don't get help with mortgage on WTC.
He can apply for disability benefits too.

shopaholicz

Thanks for the reply Princessdon, If we carried on fostering for our LA, we would obviously be getting some monies from this, but I don't think it would be enough to live on even if we had 2 placements constantly. So was just looking for enough money to live on and pay our bills. I'll look into any disability benefits we could claim. Thanks for the suggestion. I posted on here as my brains not working properly at the minute, too upset I think, so any suggestions are brill.

elsien

To go slightly off topic, a work colleague has been offered home dialysis but has been told this can be done overnight so she can continue working. Might this be something your husband could enquire about?

paddedjohn

OP, are you sure you are getting the right amount of money off your council for fostering, I've seen advertisements offering £400/£500 per week for foster carers.

paddedjohn

elsien wrote: »

To go slightly off topic, a work colleague has been offered home dialysis but has been told this can be done overnight so she can continue working. Might this be something your husband could enquire about?

Could your husbands work possibly allow him to have dialysis at work to enable him to continue working?

elsien

The husband is retired. The OP works but the husband needs someone with him for home dialysis. Hence the dilemma.

shopaholicz

The district nurse is coming tomorrow afternoon to assess our house for a home dialysis machine. You need plumbing and electricity where you're going to do this. I don't think it would be possible to route the plumbing into our bedroom, but I'll speak to them tomorrow about that. We could do the plumbing into our box room, but that would mean we only had 1 bedroom available for fostering. I'm not sure about the overnight thing, another question for tomorrow. Also, my partner seems to think a helper needs to regularly take your blood pressure, every 1/2 hour, while you're doing dialysis, how does that work if you're doing it overnight? Lots of questions. Thanks for all suggestions.

shopaholicz

What does OP mean?

Paddedjohn, which city do you live in, I'm moving there!

elsien

OP = original poster.
Sorry, I don't know any more about the practicalities of overnight dialysis, just that my colleague has been offered it.
Good luck with it all, anyway.

iris

http://www.nfa.co.uk/frequently-asked-questions/#FAQ9
How much is the Fostering Allowance?


At the National Fostering Agency we believe that our carers and foster children should have a good standard of living and a quality of life. We reward our carers with a generous fostering allowance. Our carers receive a minimum allowance of £366.00 a week for each child in placement. This allowance is paid when children are in care and is not paid when carers do not have placements.