How to know what benefits you could be entitled to?

born_again

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.

Take a look at CareCo. they have some good & a lot cheaper scooters. Bonus is they let you try them. So remember to take Mother

Pollycat

Check out this official link, there are 2 calculators:

https://www.gov.uk/benefits-calculators

it says, you'll need details of her savings etc

B0bbyEwing

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82056145#Comment_82056145

I think you could be right.

Take for example the greenhouse I mentioned. My brother will say to her about it needing to come down - no it doesn't. It's unsafe - no it isn't. Dad was going to pull it down & relocate it - no he wasn't. Ok then ask [me] & see what he says because dad was going to move it anyway …….. floods of tears.

Apparently she'll burst in to floods of tears very easily. I've never had to deal with the loss of a partner so I can't comment there but it's been 15yrs & I thought she'd be much further along in the coping process.

Around 10yrs ago she got a job. Anyway story short the owner of the company asked her to promise him that she's speak with a doctor as he didn't believe she was coping with grief. She said she would …. she never did.

I do wonder how much she's got going on. She's in poor health I can see that. She's also got diabetes yet I'm being constantly told by the other two that she barely eats. When my brother especially gets on at her it's always I'll have something later. Later comes & she still doesn't eat, or it's a slice of toast or a cut of an apple or a segment of an orange.

Which I'm convinced is part cause for her situation. If you're not fuelling properly you can't function properly, it's simple. As my sister has taken her to the docs & they've asked about her eating she's said it's fine. My sister claims she's argued against this although my sister isn't the most forceful of people whereas I can be like a dog with a bone. My sister said the docs just were like ok then & moved on - didn't really pay much attention to the eating issues. My mum has recently shown me old photos of her where she said - look how fat I was. My siblings have both said my mother has said about how she could lose more weight … yet her arms & legs look so scrawny these days. She also has made comments to my sister like "I'm ok, I've cooked for [person] and so I'm not hungry as I've filled up on the smell of food".

I'm no medical expert but to me that's eating disorder talk, or a disorder of some description. That, coupled with not managing her diabetes properly (virtually zero protein intake from what I'm told & obviously barely any calories), the not managing my dad's death well, the bury the head in the sand approach to everything, the reluctance to get help when she clearly needs it …….. something has to be going on.

It's just incredibly frustrating to watch as my sister now has little kids so I'd have thought if she wont do it for herself she could do it for them as I'm sure she'd like to see them grow up.

But yes, incredibly frustrating. Horse to water I think it is.

Pollycat

I think this situation is less about what benefits your mum might be entitled to and more about her physical and mental health.

B0bbyEwing

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82056284#Comment_82056284

Maybe not "more about" but also about.

Still, if she's entitled to more than what she's getting then that's where I'm coming from.

And if she's not then at least we know.

elsien

She won’t get attendance allowance anyway if she’s still on PIP, even when she meets the other criteria.
An answer to the AP’s original question, she can check out the benefits calculators on entitled.to or turn2us.
If she does get a care needs assessment, and there will be a wait at the moment because of the poor state of social care, any support will be means tested.