Help for a friend - no idea on benefit system at all

chubsta

Hopefully someone will be able to give us some pointers - a friend of mines wife is currently in hospital, probably a stroke, but some sort of brain problem, in an induced coma for 3 days, is now conscious but showing signs of severe mental damage.

Both have always worked full time and aside from child-benefit have never had any dealings with the benefit system - accommodation is rented and they have no savings, one 13 year old living at home.

Based on what little I know if she is ever able to work again it is a long time away, and pretty unlikely. There are no other family to help look after her so it is all going to fall on his shoulders.

What can they do? As I said in the title, non of us have ever had to try to get benefits so is there a resource anywhere that may be able to make some sense of this - they don't even have any savings to fall back on so potentially are going to go from two reasonable incomes down to at the very best 1, and potentially non if he has to give up work to help look after his wife.

My role in this is to try to gather info so he can concentrate on the task at hand - any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.

Woodstok2000

Sorry to hear that your friend is going through this, it must be very difficult.

There are lots of online calculators available, such as the government one here:Benefit Calculator

However for a full picture and to consider all options for both your friend and his wife, they may want to consider speaking to an advisor: Local Advisors

In addition to benefits, don't forget to check insurance policies, and also any benefits that may be due from their workplaces.

elsien

it is also too soon to say what the person might need as they recover - so it has to be on the radar that returning home may not be an option at least not initially. Along the lines of hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.

So your friend may need to look into benefits for both scenarios, until the picture becomes a little clearer.
if she loses capacity around her finances, and there isn’t a power of attorney, he would need to apply to become her appointee with the DWP to apply for benefits on her behalf.

information here.
https://www.gov.uk/become-appointee-for-someone-claiming-benefits

QrizB

What does her employer offer in terms of sick pay? Smaller employers might only offer the statutory minimum, but I know a friend of mine who was with a big corporate was given three yeas on full pay and three further years on half pay.

Do they have any relevant insurance? For example when I had a mortgage I also had life cover with critical illness cover.

Flugelhorn

she should have access to some sort of rehab care and then a care package assessment - as others say, no-one knows what care she will need yet