Benefits and entitlements for my mum - who to ask for help?

[Phooey]

My mum (86, widowed) has been told by a friend of hers that she *should* be able to claim certain benefits and/or entitlements. Long story short but she has various health conditions including a particular serious one which she is waiting for an urgent operation (I believe it is Peripheral arterial disease which has blocked her arteries from the stomach down and which is turning her foot black - the operation will *hopefully* save her leg!).

She currently claims nothing. I think she is slightly over the savings limit for Pension Credit hence we haven't claimed it, but other stiff like Attendance Allowance may be something she is entitled to. My mum would never be able to fill in forms without help, and shamefully I am useless too. Is there a service out there which helps to do stuff like assess her and fill in the forms for her?

Thanks

[alscar]

Phooey said:

My mum (86, widowed) has been told by a friend of hers that she *should* be able to claim certain benefits and/or entitlements. Long story short but she has various health conditions including a particular serious one which she is waiting for an urgent operation (I believe it is Peripheral arterial disease which has blocked her arteries from the stomach down and which is turning her foot black - the operation will *hopefully* save her leg!).

She currently claims nothing. I think she is slightly over the savings limit for Pension Credit hence we haven't claimed it, but other stiff like Attendance Allowance may be something she is entitled to. My mum would never be able to fill in forms without help, and shamefully I am useless too. Is there a service out there which helps to do stuff like assess her and fill in the forms for her?

Thanks

Sorry to hear about your Mum.
I became LPA for an elderly relative who was only receiving SP and after speaking with my own FA it transpires she was eligible for both Pension Credit and more appropriately in your Mums case Attendance Allowance.
Claiming both was permissible and from memory fairly easily done - both forms were pretty straightforward .
I had to cease the PC incoming when I sold her house in order to be able to pay the care home fees but the Attendance allowance continued until she sadly passed away a few years later.
If you don’t hold LPA for your Mum then it may be more difficult to get involved but I would suggest you could start by talking to the DWP and taking it from there.

[Blue M5 and Golf R]

Sorry to hear about your Mother
Try Citizens advice
I made contact with social services for my mother her GP helped as well due to her being vulnerable and having health issues
Do you have Power of attorney for your mother ?
Because that really helps in opening doors to get assistance and help for benifits and care

[Phooey]

Thanks for replies. Yes, recently got LPA - papers have just come through. I asked my mum to ask the doctors (GP surgery) for her notes so I could get the medical names for what she has and they said they don't give them out! I also had my mum call Age UK and they said they would call her back, but haven't so far.. although it does take her a while to answer the phone. Good idea re Citizens Advice - I will get her to call them. I would be happy to pay if I knew of someone that does this stuff for a living.

[GiantEnemyCrab]

entitledto.co.uk might help?

[aspirin]

AgeUK are very helpful in this situation. They are largely volunteers but support by your local council. Give them a call.

[Phooey]

aspirin said:

AgeUK are very helpful in this situation. They are largely volunteers but support by your local council. Give them a call.

Thanks, aspirin. I have just called them and left voicemail so fingers crossed they come back to us.

[alscar]

Phooey said:

Thanks for replies. Yes, recently got LPA - papers have just come through. I asked my mum to ask the doctors (GP surgery) for her notes so I could get the medical names for what she has and they said they don't give them out! I also had my mum call Age UK and they said they would call her back, but haven't so far.. although it does take her a while to answer the phone. Good idea re Citizens Advice - I will get her to call them. I would be happy to pay if I knew of someone that does this stuff for a living.

It may be possible for you to register your Mum online for patient access but using your contact details and then the record will be hopefully visible.
Alternatively using the Health LPA you should be able to formally request the details anyway from the GP.
Fwiw I found Age UK friendly but verging on useless but that may just have been the circumstances which were unusual.
Social services were also next to useless.
I know what you mean about paying someone but whilst I looked into it at the time it quickly became apparent that’s what the LPA is for and getting a third party involved was never going to be likely.

[Phooey]

alscar said:

It may be possible for you to register your Mum online for patient access but using your contact details and then the record will be hopefully visible.
Alternatively using the Health LPA you should be able to formally request the details anyway from the GP.
Fwiw I found Age UK friendly but verging on useless but that may just have been the circumstances which were unusual.
Social services were also next to useless.
I know what you mean about paying someone but whilst I looked into it at the time it quickly became apparent that’s what the LPA is for and getting a third party involved was never going to be likely.

Thanks. Good idea re using LPA to request details. I think once I get the details of what my mum has (numerous ailments like diabetes, heart somethingorother) the form filling should be easier. I'm still useless with forms though

[alscar]

Phooey said:

Thanks. Good idea re using LPA to request details. I think once I get the details of what my mum has (numerous ailments like diabetes, heart somethingorother) the form filling should be easier. I'm still useless with forms though

Indeed - explain to the GP that these medical details are vital for you in order to be able to fill out the forms.
From memory neither was overly complicated though and both relatively straightforward and quick to complete.
DWP were pretty quick to come back to me with any further questions and this was during Covid.
Having to seek Financial assessment from the Council and similar I wish I could say the same about in terms of form filing though !
One further thought - the thought of doing this was far worse than actually doing it.
Hope it all goes ok.

[Exiled Imp]

Phooey said:

aspirin said:

AgeUK are very helpful in this situation. They are largely volunteers but support by your local council. Give them a call.

Thanks, aspirin. I have just called them and left voicemail so fingers crossed they come back to us.

Age UK were extremely helpful for my elderly parents

https://www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/money-...

[Phooey]

alscar said:

Hope it all goes ok.

Thanks

Exiled Imp said:

Age UK were extremely helpful for my elderly parents

https://www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/money-...

Thanks for link, I will give them a chase up call next week to see if they can help

[hajaba123]

Age uk if you really can’t do it yourself, but it really isn’t that difficult. I learn from doing this for my parents that attendance allowance opens up a huge amount of additional help so get that done first. I think you can download the forms and start today, it gets backdated to the date of receipt too

Once you’ve got that sorted, blue badges (local council) and pension credit will also flow through more easily.
Also get in touch with your council for a ‘care needs assessment’ depending on area you might need a GP referral but you can get on their website and find out now

[Phooey]

hajaba123 said:

Age uk if you really can’t do it yourself, but it really isn’t that difficult. I learn from doing this for my parents that attendance allowance opens up a huge amount of additional help so get that done first. I think you can download the forms and start today, it gets backdated to the date of receipt too

Once you’ve got that sorted, blue badges (local council) and pension credit will also flow through more easily.
Also get in touch with your council for a ‘care needs assessment’ depending on area you might need a GP referral but you can get on their website and find out now

Good idea re the care needs assessment... didn't even know there was such a thing. Thank you.

[clockworks]

My mum (88 next month) gets attendance allowance. Although she's able to do most things for herself, she uses it to pay for help with cleaning and changing the bed once a week.

She gets a small private widow's pension, on top of the state pension, around £15k a year in total.

Her qualifying health condition is COPD.
My sister, who manages a care home, helped her with the application.

[Gordon Hill]

Savings don’t necessarily mean that you can’t claim pension credit. As of the first of April the income threshold for a single person for PC is £227.10 a week (I know), if she qualifies for AA then that threshold will go up to £308.60 a week.

As for savings, up to £10,000 there is no penalty, for every £500 over that £1 a week will be deducted from the income threshold, so for example if she has £20,000 in savings then the income threshold will go down by £20 a week to £288.60, £30,000 it will go down to £ £268.60 a week and so on.

[ferret50]

Attendance Allowance can be applied for online and is reasonably straightforward to complete. However, it can take upto 12 weeks to get a response....

[Alickadoo]

Phooey said:

My mum (86, widowed) has been told by a friend of hers that she *should* be able to claim certain benefits and/or entitlements. Long story short but she has various health conditions including a particular serious one which she is waiting for an urgent operation (I believe it is Peripheral arterial disease which has blocked her arteries from the stomach down and which is turning her foot black - the operation will *hopefully* save her leg!).

She currently claims nothing. I think she is slightly over the savings limit for Pension Credit hence we haven't claimed it, but other stiff like Attendance Allowance may be something she is entitled to. My mum would never be able to fill in forms without help, and shamefully I am useless too. Is there a service out there which helps to do stuff like assess her and fill in the forms for her?

Thanks

Citizens Advice.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/

[Phooey]

Thanks again for replies - much appreciated.