Housework help

john32170386

Hi

Looking for some info and advice.

I am a carer to my wife who apart from physical disabilities has got severe mental health problems.

I myself have disabilities that leave me exhausted and do not allow me to do very much physical housework, we get benefits like PIP, but we also take a lot of herbal supplements, which are not cheap and at the end of the day we end up with very little surplus/spare cash, if at all after all the price increases we all will be facing this year.

My problem is i am finding it increasingly difficult getting our housework done, including the garden, and some areas are getting too dirty to be healthy. We cannot have a Carers Assessment or community care assessment, as we both got a distrust of Social Services, in particular, my wife and it would cause her mental distress. Also, they may claim we have too much money coming in and could cut back on supplements heating, etc.

But we need help with gardening and some housework, we cannot afford to pay minimum wages and therefore need funding or a volunteer to come in. Has anybody got any idea how to find a volunteer or get some funding without involving social services?

We live extremely rural in the highlands of Scotland and there are not many volunteer services say like in Wales’s age Cymru offers cleaning help.

Any ideas welcome.

Ross_Alumni

Hi @john32170386

Thanks for posting your question, sorry to hear that you are finding it difficult to carry out things like house work and gardening. 

Firstly, do you and / or your wife receive any support to manage your conditions? you mentioned having a distrust of social services which I acknowledge, but are you in contact with your GP or medical team for support to manage with things?

You touched on PIP in your post, but are you and your wife receiving all the financial support that you are entitled to? Filling out a benefits calculator would help to estimate that, and you can find one here on the Turn2Us website.

Do you have any family or friends who can support you with any of these tasks in the meantime? I am not aware of any organisations or services in your local area that could support with housework and gardening on a voluntary basis, so apologies for that. Hopefully other members will be able to suggest something for you. 

Regarding social services, is there anything that has caused you to become quite distrustful of them?

Sandy_123

Hi have a look on your council website my council offer handy men for people who can't do, they do have a criteria, not sure if it fits yours or if your council offer the service, I'm not aware of the cost involved, so may be of interest.