Mom (91) has moved in with me. I will soon be leaving my job to care for her full time and the 3 of us (me, mom and husband) will be moving to Florida. I will be her full time care giver. Can a Personal Care Agreement be written up for me to be paid for her care? If we have one in place can I also hire someone for a few hours a week to give me a break rather than 24/7 care from me?
Someone on the Forum has mentioned that its easier to charge the person rent then to be paid as a caregiver. That too will need an agreement.
A personal care contract will be taxable to you, but unavoidable if you want to be sure that she would qualify for Medicaid if it was ever required.
Make sure that she is paying her way in full, all groceries, supplies, insurance, property taxes, vehicle expenses, utilities, mortgage or rent, home maintenance, lawn service, housekeeper, everything is legitimate for share of costs and you can charge her more if she has specific equipment needed that increases your utilities, that expense can be hers 100%.
A good attorney will be able to help you set this up legally and word it to cross state lines.
The lawyer suggested we have an independent “needs assessment” done. How I wish I had insisted on this before I gave up my career to come to provide 24/7 care that isn’t really needed!
Certainly a GREAT idea to go into this informed by facts and not emotion/assumptions/obligation.
I don't think that it is ever a good decision to leave ones own career to help a parent, it has to many long term consequences. If they need 24/7 they need to be in a facility.
Best wishes to you.
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