Young adults contributions to household costs? ?

[Minimouse1]

Hi, my disabled son who is 18 was in supported living but due to an incident there he was moved to the parental home for safety. He is 100% continuing health care funded & although they are providing 24hr care in the house they are not contributing to the extra costs of utility bills. There are now 5 extra people in my house daily. 2xcarers on day shift, 2x carers night shift plus my son. I am not currently taking any monies from my sons benefits as contribution to the household & whilst I understand he may need to support himself I do not see why he should fund extra costs for his carers. Either way I need to start deducting some money from his benefits to help with costs, however I do not know what is fair & reasonable or how I would account for taking this from his benefits. I only work part time & am single parent. Can anyone help me with this or signpost me to an organisation who can please?

[Hidden]

You are supposed to get universal credit and personal independent payment for your son

[BenjiB in reply to Hidden]

The lady said he does get benefits.

[Minimouse1 in reply to Hidden]

Yes he gets benefits - PIP & UC but I'm not sure now how this will be affected as when he was in supported living he had his own independant claim and I also had mine but now we're in the same household I'm not sure what will happen with th

[BenjiB]

Add up your bills and utilities and divide it by the number of people in the house. Are you his appointee?

[Minimouse1 in reply to BenjiB]

Yes I'm his appointee. There are now 5 extra people in the house with my son and the carers. I just wasn't sure if I could take an amount from my sons benefits for utilities and how to evidence this. I also didn't feel he should have to pay the extra for his carers as he was moved back home in a Safeguarding emergency situation and that placement costs paid for by CHC would have included a fee for bills etc funded by CHC.

[BenjiB in reply to Minimouse1]

You don’t need to evidence it as his appointee. My sons is paid into my account. I transfer his benefits out into a sub account within mine. If I take money for something clothes, bills, replacing broke stuff I just write it in the reference box. I don’t keep receipts or write it down anywhere. My son is CHC funded also. I have two friends who are single parents and carers to their adult sons. They just put the money in the pot as it were.

[SpeedyH]

I suspect that the CHC funding people ( also adult social care too) would say that your son’s Personal Independence Payment is awarded to meet the extra costs of having a disability which would include the extra costs inherent in having Carers in the house. We have Carers into our home too but they use very little extra in the way of utilities, the odd cup of tea and use of the microwave or perhaps a shower if it’s been a bad support day so sons PIP adequately covers this.Your son should be receiving either ESA or universal credit and the expectation is that this will cover day to day living costs like food, utilities and so on so it is perfectly reasonable for you to take ‘Board and lodgings’ from this amount. As someone below says, add up your monthly household expenditure and divide it by two for you and your son and set up a direct debit from his account into yours for this amount. Put ‘Board and lodgings contribution’ in the direct debit description and keep your expenditure calculation should you ever need to show anyone.

There are many things that you are entitled to to help, like a cap on your water bill, cheap broadband tariffs, assisted bin collections, reductions on your council tax and so on. There should be an organisation in your area who will make sure you are claiming everything you are entitled to ( Carers allowance for example?). These are often Carers organisations or charities.

[Minimouse1 in reply to SpeedyH]

Thank you for your help. I have been trying to find a charity to give advice but been unsuccessful so far. I have not established how much my bills have increased by yet but will do so ASAP. Even toilet roll is constantly on the shopping list at the moment! Of course there is extra electricity, water & gas usage. This is new territory for us as he was a child last time he lived at home, then he went to residential school & from there into Supported living.

[SpeedyH in reply to Minimouse1]

I asked a friend and she said perhaps try citizens advice, if they don’t do benefits advice they will signpost you. For the other things you might be entitled to you really need a local group of Carers with local knowledge, perhaps the Mencap helpline can help you find one, or Contact (they are a children’s charity but can signpost you to local Carers groups). For statutory benefits try using both your and your son’s details on this site:

entitledto.co.uk

PS. Just another random thought. I’m sure you are aware of this but just in case not..... be careful about the amount of savings your son has. Whilst CHC is free, adult social care is not. The NHS are continually looking to reduce the percentage health contribution they make to people's care and if they ever stop funding your son’s care 100%, then social care will means test his savings to pay for their bit of his care and it doesn’t matter what percentage of the whole package they fund, the charge is the same. I’m not exactly sure what the savings limit is, somewhere around £5-6k.

[49Twister in reply to SpeedyH]

Yes it’s £6,000. If you have between 6 and 16,000 they start to reduce benefits. More than 16,000 you lose benefits.

[Minimouse1 in reply to SpeedyH]

My son doesn't have any savings but I do and I am already getting deductions made from my UC claim for this.

[Eeviee]

Hi there. I would get onto your health authority and social services and ask them to contribute to these extra costs as they are disability related accommodation costs not just of your son but of his carers too. The alternative would be a care home or supported living and you can be sure that those organisations would get money for these costs. It will be a long fight to get these costs because you are a soft touch at the moment but if your son wasn’t with you those costs would be met. You need to consider the long term plan for your son really as living with you is not the solution fir the future.