Son in hospital - what financial assistance might be available?

[Deleted User]

were they negligent? are you going to sue them ?

Valli

and contact your MP - they can be reached by email and some of them are very helpful.

lurkylurky

All Councils run a Council Tax Disability Reduction Scheme which reduces council tax by one band. We live in Nottingham where the criteria is:
- a second bathroom or kitchen required for meeting the needs of the disabled person
- a room set aside to provide specific facilities for the disabled person
- sufficient room for the disabled person to use their wheelchair indoors

So if he will be sleeping downstairs on his return from hospital, or you need a room to store medical equipment, or a room to exercise in you could apply.

My OH has a shed load of medication every day and a weekly infusion of Gammanorm which is stored in a fridge supplied by the NHS in our spare bedroom. We store all his other meds in there and we do his infusion there as well.

Wishing your boy a speedy recovery. Sounds like a nightmare.

ETA: Are there any charities/self help groups relating to your boy's original medical condition that offer help?

Batman_100

Valli wrote: »

and contact your MP - they can be reached by email and some of them are very helpful.

Best of luck with trying to contact your MP at this stage in the electoral cycle, especially if you live in a marginal constituency.

Tigsteroonie

You may find that there is a Benevolent Fund either linked to your line of work, or your union - and if you've changed job recently, you may even be able to apply to the Benevolent Fund for your old line of work The Civil Service Ben Fund came through for me when I'd left 8 months prior.

The Turn2Us website has a list of grant awarding & charitable bodies that may be able to fund extra equipment you could need, leaving your income to live on daily.

[Deleted User]

Batman_100 wrote: »

Best of luck with trying to contact your MP at this stage in the electoral cycle, especially if you live in a marginal constituency.

even more reason to do so when they need the votes

mlp

Batman_100 wrote: »

Best of luck with trying to contact your MP at this stage in the electoral cycle, especially if you live in a marginal constituency.

Actually, ours is very responsive - but then it is a safe seat.

mlp

Thanks everyone for the replies.

Lots to think about.

To answer some points:

I stopped receiving child tax credit a few years ago when they changed the thresholds, but I did run through the process on the HMRC website yesterday and it does look like I'll get something if the boy ends up with DLA.

Yes - I'm in Unison - I'll see if they can help with anything.

The parking discount I get IS the parents' discount!!

Clinical negligence? Difficult to say - depends on his recovery I guess. Unison offer free legal advice for this so I can explore that.

Yes, he's likely to have to sleep downstairs for a while when he comes home so the Council Tax reduction may come in to play then.