My husband who’s 43 now needs carers 4 times a day (with me doing the work in between). He can only be moved by hoist. The financial assessment by the council has come out that we need to pay the first £175 per week of that care!!!
The main problem seems to be his PHI payments - which the council class as earnings. This is the same PHI payment that prevents us from claiming any help with the mortgage, council tax, school expenses for 2 kids etc.
We simply cannot afford to pay this - although he claims DLA (hugher rate), ESA, carer’s for me, tax credits… we get absolutely no help or reductions with our bills in any way - so how are we supposed to find £750 per month to pay for the care he needs??
The council didn’t really have a clue as to how to treat his PHI payments - can anyone help with how theirs were treated? Or any way that we can appeal?
I don’t know the answer - I will tell you what I do. My Doctor is helpfull - he has a brother who has MS and he told me that he may get it himself. Sorry, but that is all I know. Good Luck.
Marcus.
Hi, can I please ask what PHI payments are? It seems to me that this is a lot of money they are asking you to pay. If you help out as well how many hours care a week will he get for the money the council is paying plus what they are asking you to pay. Cheryl:-)
PHI is Permanent Health Insurance. His employer took out the insurance, and it pays a proportion of his salary.
As we have 2 under 8’s in the house, the carer’s do an hour in the morning (get him up, showered, dressed), come in at lunch to feed/check on him (15mins), again at tea time (15 mins) then half hour at bed time to undress him and put him to bed. The lunch and tea time checks are because he is doubly incontinent so sometimes needs changing/hoisting onto the toilet. So a maximum of 2 hours a day.
The social care cost is £16.88 (I think) an hour - so we pay for the first 10 1/2 hours a week. Even if we skipped the lunch and tea time checks (which is supposed to help me with moving him so much, and means me and the kids are not tied to being back at mealtimes especially at weekends and holidays) - just the morning and evening calls make up that full 10 1/2 hours that we have to pay for.