Yes I'm on a salary, paying Insurance and tax through my wife's Direct Payments budget, at the moment I'm allocated 6 hours a day 7 days a week with holiday pay and sickness, so not just an allowance. When we were in London I read up on all the literature to see if I could take over as her carer as a few times I took over from her existing carer when he was on holiday. I found a section that related to family members becoming carers/PA but it did not include partners as they were living together in the same household, however there are exceptions and these are down to the local authority to decide, its all rather subjective. My wife needs constant attention through the 24 hour period for transfer and toileting as she is unable to walk or transfer from her wheelchair without a hoist and overnight she needs to be repositioned or toileted. Her OT was very good and did an extensive diary on a day to day basis on the support she needed and what it would cost if they had to supply outside carers. This is also balanced against what as a partner I would provide, I was allocated 4 hours initially with no other support this went up to 6 after we moved here 5 years ago. Because I was already a PA in London when we moved the OT wrote a report justifying my position for Norfolk and they did re assess the situation and approved it, raising my hours to 6 a year after.
I'm not sure there are many in this situation in Norfolk because the OT's were very surprised when we moved over, but they did realise the benefits and savings of such an arrangement.
Hope this helps
xStatistics: Posted by Alun — 22 Jan 2014, 12:00
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