How do I get Caregiver benefits

Caregiver compensation
Oddly enough I was cruising around the website of the lawyer helping me with my Dad's probate and came across the story below yesterday - it's not clear to me why this is related to Medicaid. Also - There was also a caregiver's clause in my Dad's long-term care policy where family members could be compensated under that policy given all the correct paperwork. I was my Dad's caregiver and wondered about some form of compensation for all the time but never managed to pursue it.

Let us know how this goes - any relief for caregivers would be welcome.

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In the United States many of our elderly reside in retirement facilities or nursing homes because they do not have family members who are either able or willing to care for them. Oftentimes family members feel that they are neither physically or financially able to care for their elder relatives. It is not common in the United States for a child or other family member to care for an elderly relative until his or her death.

In many cultures, it is taken for granted that children will care for their parents or other elderly family members when the time comes that they cannot care for themselves. Many Asian and Indian cultures in particular are seen as owing their parents this care and comfort in their last years and if this care is not provided they may be shunned by others. In the United States we are very independent and many of us hate to ask for help or rely on others for our care, especially as we get older. In addition, if an elder person does rely on another family member for his or her care, they would like to compensate that individual for such care.

Under federal Medicaid law, caregivers are not entitled to compensation unless the parties have entered into a written care agreement. It is important that an attorney be consulted in drafting a caregiver agreement if you want to compensate your caregiver and not encounter problems with Medicaid eligibility requirements.

An effective caregiver agreement must be in writing and should be witnessed by two unrelated persons. The agreement should indicate when care is to be provided and what the amount of compensation will be to the caregiver. The caregiver should be paid a reasonable rate for his or her services depending on what services are provided; the rate may be different for the various services. The agreement should include payment schedules and payment should not be made in advance of rendered services because Medicaid may treat unearned compensation as a gift. If the caregiver has experience in providing certain services, he or she may be entitled to additional compensation. For example, if your child is a nurse and he or she is able to care for an elderly relative, he or she should be compensated at a rate higher than a family member who is not a nurse.

Caregiver agreements are a good tool to reduce misunderstandings among family members at the death of an elderly person. Caring for a parent or other family member before his or her death is hard work. I have handled cases where siblings or other family members file claims against the estate of a deceased for compensation due to services provided before death. I have also had cases where family members wish to contest a deceased’s will because they do not feel that they were treated fairly. I encourage family members to discuss care and compensation issues before death to reduce possible litigation after the care recipient’s death.

For work
From your job, look into FLMA. If I hadn't been let go from my last job, I would have used that for caring for hubby. Since it's your dad, it should fall into the same category. There is a limit to this tho. My last job was 6 months at a clip.

I think that was what you were looking for. If not look into it anyhow. Anything helps!

benefits
Try getting in touch with real services...when I first started with them they had said something about either getting paid by the state for taking care of my grandfather or I could "hire" help. By hire I mean use an agency to have an aid come to your home to care for my grandfather. I use help at home. They are very nice and helpful. Hope this helps.

Steph