If your family member needs care and they are a self-funder, it’s very easy to think that helping out is a good thing.
Mum or dad are struggling to maintain independence at home, so you agree to do their shopping, or pop round and make sure they have a hot meal each evening. It makes sense doesn’t it? You want to do the right thing and perhaps also save your parent a few quid by not having to pay an agency for home help.
But it’s a slippery slope. Before you know it, your family member’s care needs have escalated and they are completely reliant upon you.
You have joined the ranks of a legion of full-time, unpaid carers.
You may have been told that your mum or dad doesn’t qualify for CHC funding, so you find yourself ending up as an unpaid carer. Not only is this often incorrect and wrong in law, it’s also so unfair!
If your parent was admitted to hospital would you expect the nurse to ask: “would you like to change your mother’s bed, could you muck in and wash the floors, or could you help out in the kitchen?”
Quite rightly, you’d be appalled. You’d probably say: “that’s not my job!” But out in the community, it’s a different story.
And here’s the nub of the problem. NHS Continuing Health Care (CHC) is free but social care is means tested.
Let’s take a look at what happens when your family member has care needs.
Social workers will meet with you to determine the eligible needs of the person you are supporting.
When they are discussing the level of help your loved one needs – such as shopping, washing clothes, dressing them or taking them out – it’s tempting to say “yes, I can do that”.
Every time you agree to do something, you are giving up your own time, for free. You are becoming an unpaid carer, allowing the Local Authority to avoid meeting their statutory obligations.
People often get in touch with us after social workers have visited. The decision will have been made – often wrongly – that the person is not eligible for free Continuing Health Care but they do, nevertheless, have social eligible needs.
They cannot perform activities associated with daily living and so a package of care is offered.
Sadly, these packages of care often do not offer very much. They’ll provide a few brief visits a day if you’re lucky. How are you supposed to cover the other 22 hours a day, 7 days a week?
Local authorities are struggling to pay for adult social care. This means that, rather than offering someone with, say, advanced dementia a placed in residential care, they’ll sometimes resort to ‘guilt-tripping’ family members into saying “yes, we can cope.”
If you are a family member or a carer we understand that saying “no” is difficult but sometimes it can be in the best interests of the person you are looking after.
If your family member has been told by social services that they will need to self-fund their care, speak to us now. There are many instances where local authorities get it wrong. You may not need to sell the family home or use a lifetime of savings to pay for care.
To find out your rights as a carer call us now for a FREE conversation on 0203 653 0623.