You must have a care contract with your parent. They must be able to sign, in other words if your parent has alz or dementia they are not able to enter into any contracts. If you have a contract the charge for services must be reasonable. If you are going to place in facility you can spend down there. If you do pay relatives for care under a contract i would put the money aside incase medicaid red flags it, better safe than sorry. Just know large sums will always be suspect. Funds can be used to prepay funeral for parent as well as the funerals for any children of that person as long as the money goes into an irrevokable trust the funeral home sets up. Medicaid will dig so do not try and hide any funds.
Thank you so much, I have been caring for mom for six months and had to quit my full time job and go to part time. I can't afford it without some help from her monthly check. She is living with me and my husband and we are caring for her 24/7. She has dementia. This has been a great help.
Thats great, your Mom has to "need" 24/7 care also as far as I know. (doctors notes also) You just cannot have a contract for someone who can be left alone for any time, hope you know what I mean. Your brother can get to a lawyer and have one drawn up. It will cost $ to have one drawn up and it explains in detail what you will be doing, hours etc. Normally its $15+ an hour 8 hours a day and 10 hours on the weekend days. All other hours and thru the night are what they call "daughterly duties." Free, of course, its your parent. I also got $300 a month fiducial duties. You will go way over on both, theres so much paperwork and ordering, etc but thats a ballpark idea for you. I took what I made and saved it and once her money ran out, I used it right back for her, she is still living with me now 8 years later. You can then apply for medicaid at home care . Make sure you have every penny recorded, every receipt of everything you bought or care you provided to get out, for your mother. I have boxes and boxes, including a daily journal of whats done with mom daily, what she took for pills, ate, her moods, bm's, you name it, its written. I just applied for medicaid at home help and they told me the caregivers contract is key. I could have applied a couple of years ago but I want her to stay with me so I quit my job.. Good Luck
My main question is if this will be true for every state. I heard a while back that Medicaid in some states does not allow for pay of family caregivers. I do not know if that is true. Maybe someone here knows. I would make sure I knew my state's rules before I did anything with large amounts of money. I would ask someone that handled Medicaid to ask what would be permissible in my state.
REverse Roles. I did the same thing. Sure I could collect it if I wanted to, but the money was OURS. I just wanted the money to go down so that if he lingered there would be money for groceries etc. I did not want to be paid, but the government almost makes us do it this way.
Thank you all, I had no idea they made things so hard for us to take care of our loved ones. I wish I didn't have to use any of her money. But, my husband is on social security and doesn't make much, and now that I'm working part-time I have to use her money or we wouldn't make it. I guess we will be penalized for awhile because I had no idea about any of this when I started.
https://www.agingcare.com/questions/Does-money-paid-to-a-family-member-for-in-home-care-count-towards-Medicaid-pay-down-of-assets-140452.htm