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How to know what benefits you could be entitled to?
Asking on behalf of my mother as she wont seek help herself yet if we insist on it she'll accept it then.
Going back quite a few years I know she was on DLA & something else. I forget what. One was means tested & the other wasn't.
I remember her getting herself all worked up over one of them she had to be assessed for physically. She turned up for one assessment with walking aids & her small handbag over her shoulder across the body. The write up said something like "entered the room carrying a large bag" as though she was lugging a suitcase about. Benefit stopped, appeal went in, docs note went in, benefit got turned back on.
Anyway one of the benefits stopped. I can't remember why. Maybe they no longer do it any more. She only gets one now which I think is PIP. I'd have to check.
Anyway I'm just reaching out here to see whether she'd be eligible for anything else - as in how she'd find that out? Not knowing what benefits there are it's hard to know what may apply.
As since then her mobility is shocking.
I don't see her as much as my siblings do. They both told me she's quite bad now so I went & saw her recently & couldn't believe how bad she's gotten.
She's now on 2 sticks, she takes an age to walk across a room as she can only really shuffle. She's in constant pain. Her foot or feet are starting to turn inwards on themselves & she's just dragging it along. She's pretty much lost feeling in said foot & after my sister went to an appointment with her recently they mentioned necrosomething with the skin. She can no longer drive. Going up stairs is a huge task. It wouldn't surprise me if before long she can't even move & she'll be wheelchair bound with the rate she's deteriorating.
She doesn't have a carer but like I say if she needs to go anywhere then someone needs to take her as she'd not be able to go herself.
She's in a constant fret over money so here I am looking to see how she can find out what she may be eligible for.
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Comments
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Have you used ?
That's the resource that usually gets mentioned.
Know what you don't1 -
How old is she ?
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She's in a constant fret over money so here I am looking to see how she can find out what she may be eligible for.
How are her finances actually?
It is not unheard of for people of a certain age to fret about money even though they have sufficient capital and income to meet their needs.
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She may very well be entitled to attendance allowance (not means tested). You or your siblings should contact social services to arrange an assesment from an occupational therapist.
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Nope as I wouldn't know where to start tbh but thanks for the link & will take a look.
64 this month. Her health issues began when she was 40-41 & she's had very little work since about 2003-2005.
As I say that - just in case we get on to pensions & qualifying years, I checked that for her on the advice of people here some time ago & whichever benefit it was she was getting kept her qualifying years going it seems.
So-so. One of my siblings still stops at home despite having recently bought their own place. They don't want to move out fully as she's forever falling these days & despite being told to take it easy she continues to do things she doesn't need to do through being hard headed*. As they still stop there they still contribute to the bills.
Without that contribution she would be negative each month by a bit I think. With the contribution she's a little in the black each month. She receives her PIP benefit, my dads pension & she keeps an old lady company once a week who insists on paying her for this. Take any of those away & she'll be losing each month.
Thanks will take a look.
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As she's under State Pension Age she wouldn't be entitled to Attendance Allowance yet (and I suspect from my personal experience wouldn't be regarded as needing enough care to qualify as of yet).
If she needs people to drive her around it may be worth seeing if she can get a blue badge to help them with parking etc - she'sdneed to apply via her local council,,
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She might not qualify for care but I still think an OT assessment is worthwhile to look at possible home adaptions can be provided.
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She's had a blue badge for absolute ages. 20 years maybe.
Sister is currently talking about the possibility of a mobility scooter storable in a car boot. Didn't know they existed. Had a gander at portable ones & ouched at the £2.5k price tag.
To be totally honest, the only adaption I can see working is moving house to something like a bungalow.
But I can also see her flat out refusing that. I would put a lot of money on it that she'd refuse. She's been in the house for 40 years. All of her kids grew up in that house. My dad is no longer with us & she wont get rid of literal anything that belonged to him, no matter how insignificant it is, even broken stuff so she's absolutely not going to move from the house with the memories.
The house is quite small anyway and she hoards beyond belief so movement is even worse. I wonder if this contributes to some of the falls.
** Just in case anyone comes at me for saying anything about her refusing to throw any of my dads stuff then don't twist what I'm saying. I'm all for keeping some things but I'm talking about she wont throw anything at all and I mean anything. I'll give you one example - the greenhouse is about to collapse. It's leaning like crazy because it's just rotted over the years. It's held in place by rope & it's leaning against a wall or something. My dad when he was still with us was going to take it down & relocate it anyway. She wont let us take it down because it was dads. She refuses to accept he was going to do it himself anyway. So when I say she throws nothing I mean she throws nothing. As a result, space is very limited in the house.
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No one is going to have a go at you, it can be incredibly frustrating when someone you love refuses help or to make changes that would improve their quality of life.
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It sounds as though she would benefit from a care needs assessment which can be set up with local Social Services, someone will need to be with her gfor interview otherwise she will say she is fine.
Relectance to throw things away to the extent that they limit space sounds like a mental health issue which might be addressed as part of above
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