Should I use my mothers money to pay for her handicap ramp at my house since she lives with me and I'm her caregiver ?

Your local lions club may be able to help you also. They can sometimes build them for you for free.

If Medicaid is anticipated in the next 5 years, doing things like this (writing checks from mom to you and then you pay for stuff) can set off red-flags for a Medicaid transfer penalty. 5 years is a long time and maybe you think that mom will live with you forever but things change. There are contracts that you all can do with mom to establish payment for personal services, etc.

But I imagine you don't want to deal with all that right now, you just want an ramp in and like yesterday. Am I correct? What I would suggest is to keep any future issues from happening is to get a couple of estimates for the ramp; the estimates need to be written to your mom (Mrs. Jane Smith) so that it is clear and documented that the ramp is for her; more than 1 estimate is good as it shows you are taking your oversight of her and her income seriously; then whomever does the work is paid for from a check from her account - NOT you paying for it and then she (you) write a check to you for repayment. The check needs to be made out to a business entity - so it reads Jack Jones Carpentry Service rather than just Jack Jones. The lookback on Medicaid right now is 5 years and that is a long time to keep receipts etc or remember just wtf something was for. Good luck and make sure that the ramp is up to your cities code and with a wide enough landing for a wheelchair to do a full 360 turn around.

If the bids/estimates come in just too high for you, think about contacting your local BSA (Boy Scouts) council. Handicapped ramps are a good and achievable Eagle Scout project. BSA will need to dovetail this into a community organization - like Agency or Aging or a church community program (Jewish Family Service does this in alot of cities), so that it can work for Eagle. But it can be a win-win for all

If you have POA I believe you can do this. I was told by an investor anything that helps her she can pay for. But I did not have to, so I never checked with lawyer.