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I am a caregiver from my 93 year old mother.

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This is #1 ? on this site. There are several long posts you can read.

In general, government views caregiving provided by family to be done out of love & devotion & for free. Some states - CA - have caregiver programs in which family take a course or training to be paid to care a set # of hours ( determined by state & dependent on medical needs). Pay is about $10 hr. Based on what other have written 15-20 hrs a week. Not really a living wage.

What is often a better idea is to have your parent pay you to be their caregiver. This needs to be done with a legally drawn up personal care contract, so to avoid future issues from Medicaids gifting/transfer penalty when they apply for Medicaid. I mention Medicaid because the reality is that if they live long enough, their level of care will increase, and the caregiver will run out of steam and they will need a higher level of care - which means a NH. Your parent gets SS and perhaps also a retirement and perhaps has nest egg saved. All those funds can be used to pay you to be a caregiver within whatever is your community standards for private pay caregivers ($18-25 hr). If you have a speciality education or job - like a CPA or MPH- you can bill your parent your standard consultant rate for work you do that is identical to that. An elder law attorney will know how contract needs to read and what your community standards are.

If you are hoping that govt is going to pay you whatever salary you had at your old job, well that isn't going to happen.

For me, this is a political issue - any change has to be done through legislation.
Think carefully who you vote for.
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Great answer from igloo. You can also go up to the Money & Legal tab and click on Paying for Care.
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