claiming from local council

Dear B&W

have just recently learned that i can claim from local council for a person who does some cleaning and bit of cooking in my home.

last few months i'm paying this from my PIP n ESA.
she comes on average 9hrs. a week .i pay her 10£ an hour.

I've tried to get help from local council(so i went trough a procedure...)but i find their help awful... so i canceled them.This's before i employed a cleaning girl.

Can you tell me what is d procedure,is it stressful and so on?

Most grateful for All you help
P

purity wrote: Dear B&W

have just recently learned that i can claim from local council for a person who does some cleaning and bit of cooking in my home.

last few months i'm paying this from my PIP n ESA.
she comes on average 9hrs. a week .i pay her 10£ an hour.

I've tried to get help from local council(so i went trough a procedure...)but i find their help awful... so i canceled them.This's before i employed a cleaning girl.

Can you tell me what is d procedure,is it stressful and so on?

Most grateful for All you help
P

You will need to be assessed by social services. After their assessment of your needs they may or may not give you a personal budget from the public purse. Then you have to have all your finances picked over by a benefits assessor of theirs and if you come in under their thresholds, then they will agree to your having the budget without contributing. If over their threshold they can signpost you to help you have to pay for yourself. If you are under the threshold you then have a meeting with a support brokerage who will tell you how you can or cannot spend the money, every penny of which has to be accounted for in an agreed manner.
At the end of the day you may well be able to employ your cleaner still, but unless they are self employed you will have to set yourself up as an employer with associated tax, national insurance and other liabilities.

Hope that helps

A few years ago I did go through a needs assessment in order to qualify for care from my local authority. Found the process very probing and distressing. I had to abandon it after a couple of hours. I then resumed it another day to complete. I qualified for moderate care needs. Then I went through another probing assessment called a 'financial assessment'. Waited almost 2 months only to find out that my pension credit guarantee payment just took me above the limit to get any financial help with direct payment for any care. So I would have to pay myself for any care, such as a cleaner or even to attend a day centre. I really do not understand how some people get help and others none. Good luck to whoever gets what I do not begrudge anyone anything, but could never go through those assessments again. Almost had a breakdown from them.

Thank you ALL for your king explanations.

your answers indeed are going to help me in my decision.

i did go trough some assessments with local council.
They were extremely time consuming,stressful. Their people who r apparently trained for my needs i found majority obnoxious- especially manner in which they were treated me.
One person was absolutely awful. They ignored my instructions(which i 've repeated 3 times),shouted in my home-when i pointed out i feel very unhappy they r shouting/loud talking in my home.They said they r going to continue talking like this...and many other negativity's'.

Cheers All x