Family caregivers wear many hats: companion, aide, therapist, cook, recreation planner, mediator, consoler, financial manager, to name a few. Each family caregiver’s preparation for each role differs. It is important to ensure that as a family caregiver you are as prepared as you can be to assume your responsibilities. Seeking out training for caregivers, consultations with experts and informing yourself about the responsibilities of caregiving can help you to feel prepared to be an effective caregiver and reduce stress related to caregiving.
One role that frequently causes unnecessary stress is financial management. Because the role of caregiver often happens without preplanning, it is very common for caregivers to gradually begin managing bill paying and shopping without a formal plan in place. Often, a caregiver uses her personal funds to purchase items for a parent and doesn’t seek reimbursement. For purposes of ease of access when paying a parent’s bills, a caregiver may decide to put her name on the banking account for her parent. These simple acts can lead to complications down the road. Financial management requires a long-term approach and not an expedient one.
Seemingly expedient decisions can later result in complications. Co-mingling finances may result in the care recipient being declared ineligible for benefits for which they are actually eligible. Paying for items for a relative from a family member’s account may result in financial strain on the caregiver. Determining division of an estate can become complicated in trying to determine what is owed to the family caregiver when the estate is settled.
All of these potential problems are easily prevented when the caregiver establishes a plan. Plans should begin with the family caregiver obtaining legal authority, such as a power of attorney to represent her relative. This will facilitate access to needed documents, authority to pay bills, and the ability to apply for benefits. A plan should include the creation of a budget for the care recipient that includes all the housing expenses, other bills, medical costs, food, and transportation. So often, without a plan and separate accounts, caregivers are paying out of pocket for co-pays for doctor visits and medication refills from the caregivers’ personal accounts. Caregivers pay for additional food costs, when they are doing their own shopping and not getting reimbursed. They are providing transportation to doctor offices, lab tests, rehab centers and not getting reimbursed for the additional cost of driving.
Being a caregiver is a lot of work, it shouldn’t also become a financial burden for the caregiver. AARP’s latest research on caregiving revealed that on average, a family caregiver pays $7200 per year from the caregivers’ personal finances on the care recipients. Housing related costs are the most frequent expense, covering mortgages, insurance and taxes.
Lost income due to the need to miss work to attend to caregiving responsibilities is another financial strain on family caregivers.
A key component of making a plan is gathering important documents and assigning a safe place to store them so they are readily available when needed. There are many benefit programs that can assist a family in providing care at home for a loved one. They all have an application process and require documents such as an official birth certificate, divorce papers, marriage license, annual benefit letter from Social Security, Medicare Card, co-insurance card, death certificate of spouse, military discharge papers, life insurance policies, housing deed, proof of pension. When you are in need of help from one of these programs and don’t know where the required papers are, it can needlessly delay your loved one getting help. You can limit the application process delay, by having all the necessary documents in a safe accessible location as opposed to trying to help your parent remember where her birth certificate might be.
If you are managing your relative’s Social Security check, you should apply to become a legally recognized representative payee. Social Security can assist you with the process. If you are paying for things from your own accounts, keep all your receipts, create a system to record your expenses. It will reduce stress in the future and may enable your relative to qualify for benefits sooner if you are paid back for the expenses you covered.
The government has helpful tools to guide you through this process. The link below will take you to the government’s consumer finance program for additional information.
Government Consumer Finance Program