Carers

My son works 14 hours per week and looks after me the rest of the time. Because he earns £114 per week he has been refused carers allowance and so now will go full time at his work. I’ve read people on here with several carers, can someone please tell me how to go about getting help. Thanks.

You can ask for a carer’s assessment through your local council’s social service dept, tell them due to the situation it is urgent because you will be left w/o a carer when your son increases to ft work and if they don’t see it as urgent see if GP will refer you urgently. Good luck.

Carer’s assessments are very slow even when your need is dire! You must get the GP on board - they can usually speed thimgs along (or a community matron if you have one at your surgery).

Has your son thought of reducing his hours slightly? With carers allowance you are allowed to earn £100/week and still claim carer’s allowance.

Please be aware with the carers that the social will do a financial assessment to determine how much THEY think you can contribute to their cost

Hi, a carer`s assessment is for the carer…not for the person needing care.

I started using Direct Payments to pay for carers in 2011. it took me 3 yrs to convince hubby that we needed help, as he was doing everything and was suffering with his RA.

It took a long time to be seen. you ring Social Servies or in our area, Gateway to care first.

they will send a Social Worker to assess your needs and if you qualify, then an amount of money is generated by the answers you give, as it is typed in to their laptop.You then become an employer and can advertise and interview (with the help of social services) perspective PAs/carers.

Alternative, as i did, I found my own PAs and now have 3.

The money is paid into a separate account of mine, then each month you phone your carers` hours in and a payslip comes to you, so you can pay your staff by cheque.

At first the paperwork looks daunting, but there is lots of help to guide you through it.

me and my hubby think it is marvelous.

Hope it works out for you and if you`d like any more info, just pm me, yeh?

luv Pollx