How much to pay a live in carer

rose28454

Sunshinemummy wrote: »

Rosie, all I can say is you are LOVELY!

(ps we can send Nerfy to sort your brother out!)

:D:D:D:D

As regards to my brother I have barely spoken to him for the past 10 years and have only communicated recently about Mum. He moved into his house about 14 years ago and I have never been inside. He is an absolute pig.

rose28454

sunnyone wrote: »

What kind of care does your mum need?

Its very diffrent employing someone to be a companion and make a cup of tea to employing someone to give intimate care. To me it makes a big diffrence in cost because I only use properly trained carers for intimate care, its £3ph diffrence to me but I cant skimp and have just a "nice enough woman" to replace my urostomy or care for my pressure issues.

How many hours per week does your mum currently get funded via SS? Four visits per day can be as little as fourteen hours per week and that will leave you with a massive funding gap to even provide a carer while the family takes a break.

Care is very, very expensive and even if you provide a room and board with use of a car 24 hour care will cost hundreds of pounds per week.

Mum needs help dressing and washing. Although she is a bit wary at the moment due to the falls she can get in and out of bed, can go to the loo on her own and can feed herself. She just needs help with washing dressing, tablets and meal preparation. she gets about 14 hours per week as you say.

Horseunderwater

Has she got one of those alarms to wear around her neck? That way if worst did happen, she could press it to alert someone.

rose28454

Horseunderwater wrote: »

Has she got one of those alarms to wear around her neck? That way if worst did happen, she could press it to alert someone.

Yes she has one of those

sunnyone

rose28454 wrote: »

Mum needs help dressing and washing. Although she is a bit wary at the moment due to the falls she can get in and out of bed, can go to the loo on her own and can feed herself. She just needs help with washing dressing, tablets and meal preparation. she gets about 14 hours per week as you say.

The care above is much less specialised than I need so in genenral you dont need people trained to the same level but it is still expensive. Why did she fall? There is a specialised fall team for the elderly in my PCT, is thier in yours?

The cost ph will depend on where in the country you live, since she is only currently assessed as needing 14 hours care per week unless he has seriously deterioated recently the family need to find a fortune on top of that if they want constant 24/7 care because while you provide a room for the carer they still require payment while they sleep.

I am in unable to do most things for myself, I am either in my hospital bed or powerchair, I cant stand or walk and my hands/arms are seriously restricted but SS dont think that I need 24/7 care, until the last two years I was assessed as needing 35 hours care.

We self fund as we fail the financial assessment though we are certainly not rich, we have a bit saved and we both have small private pensions (which were hugely reduced because we were both young when we claimed them, I was under 30). Being self funders give you more choice but their will be more rules if your mum gets awarded DP's.

Does your mum have savings or property other than the one she live in? Include any "free" shares etc.? They include everything in the financial assessment though if you have a decent SW they will take into account your disability costs.

To make 24/7 care work for anyone who isnt loaded you need to use the family/friends/charities to the best advantage, can you/a sibling do mornings? Are there charities in your area that can do a few hours maybe Tues/thurs morning?

Finefoot

Definitely have a chat with Social Services.

rose28454

Finefoot wrote: »

Definitely have a chat with Social Services.

I had a missed call from the lady on Friday so will chase her up tommorow. Had a chat with mum and she is a bit upset about all the comings and goings. she is just missing me going in every morning and being able to call on me anytime. She says she's not worried about being on her own at night and can manage. So after talking to sis yesterday we are going to give this lady a 3 day trial next weekend but 1st we are going to tell her we cant afford £500.00 per week ( what she wants) and anyway we dont even know what funding we will get. Also there are a number of ladies advertising locally for care/housework/shopping positions on an hourly rate so am going to call a couple to see if they want a few hours a week. Then when I am working or my sis and I are away we can call one of them in.
Its seems silly to get rid of the care package Mum has when she is managing ok. Also spoke to older sis who is away last night and she started on about having someone live in and get paid nothing. It was a bad line so I told her to call me today. She lives in another universe!
The only thing I know is my brother is going to kick off big time when we tell him we think its a no go. 5 years ago he interviewed various ladies and installed one without my parents even seeing her who came 2.5 hours a day before either of them had care. She stayed 2 years, Mum hated her and it all came to a head when my brother sent my sister a letter she had sent detailing how much better she was making my parents lives. It was all rubbish and my parents asked me to take over. Brother would not hear of it so finally one day I went to her house and asked for the key back and said that's it. I told her my parents wanted me to look after them and as she was paid cash anyway( brother took my Dad's bank card from him so he could pay her every week ) that was that. So we are already wary of having people in and at least the care agency vet their carers and when we had a problem with one upsetting Mum I just asked the agency not to send her again ( which they were happy to do).
So I think why get rid of this care when all she needs is a bit more things done sometimes and we can find someone by the hour. The cleaner I found already has offered to do mum's lunch if needed.
Have had a bad head all night worrying about this whole thing. I really dont need it.

cattermole

It isn't the Social workers who do the detailed financial assessments all LA's should take account of disability related expenditure when calculating care charges. However I am aware of one who has put a limit on DRA which probably isn't lawful.

I mentioned previously to the OP that if someone is living at the property it is highly unlikely they would agree to a DP to pay them with.

I do think the suggestion of using charities is a good one and rotas with friends and family.

This is the list of acceptable documents for proving eligibility to work in the UK

https://www.gov.uk/check-an-employees-right-to-work-documents

You need to be aware that seeing the correct documents applies in all situations even if its someone you know personally who you know does have a right to work in the UK. The information needs to be recorded on their employee record.

cattermole

I posted the above post Rosie before I read your latest one.

If you go ahead next weekend and pay her (whatever) that amount is you need to make the document checks and you will be an employer and will need to register with HMRC explain when you phone the new employer helpline you are employing for care and no profit involved. You will need to do a payroll deduct tax, Ni and in addition you will need Employers liability insurance which can be obtained from specialist companies like FISH. There are plenty of payroll services around who for a small cost will run the payroll for you.

Paying someone casually directly who is advertising an hourly rate would be slightly different as presumably they are self employed and declaring their own income to the HMRC. Again I would expect to see a police check if it was someone I didn't know.

All the above is why agencies exist because they are the employer rather than the service user.

sh1981

cattermole wrote: »

I posted the above post Rosie before I read your latest one.

If you go ahead next weekend and pay her (whatever) that amount is you need to make the document checks and you will be an employer and will need to register with HMRC explain when you phone the new employer helpline you are employing for care and no profit involved. You will need to do a payroll deduct tax, Ni and in addition you will need Employers liability insurance which can be obtained from specialist companies like FISH. There are plenty of payroll services around who for a small cost will run the payroll for you.

Paying someone casually directly who is advertising an hourly rate would be slightly different as presumably they are self employed and declaring their own income to the HMRC. Again I would expect to see a police check if it was someone I didn't know.

All the above is why agencies exist because they are the employer rather than the service user.

I thought carers allowance got paid directly to the carer!