help for son 19 with medical conditions

Hi

I have searched and searched not just now but over the years and rang departments etc to find out if there was any small extra allowance for my son who is now 19.

He had a few brain tumours on his pituitary gland and as a result has been on medication for 9 years now and will be for the rest of his life. He is obese due to the nature of these tumours and the medication and also would have some learning difficulties which he never had and also as he loves drawing and would have loved to work with something arty is now colour blind.

Now he is fine and we live day to day and is care is primarly management, taking meds, hospital visits a few times a year with blood tests, annual scans. It is not only the physical effects from this but other things. He has no friends and is very isolated except with either much older people or younger people, I think he feels he is not judged by these different groups of people. He is not alone though. he completed a questionnaire on his condition and the questions were definitely compiled for people who live similar lives to him.

He had shunts put in because of hydrocephelus and they were replaced 2 years later.

I was never told about domiciliary allowance.

I am a single parent and his care is down to me. Though he trots of to his course at the VEC he is finding it extremely difficult as instruction and short term memory are a huge problem. He also gets very tired due to the condition and his meds and I sometimes feel he will never be able for a full time job and yet I do not want to encourage social welfare benefits for him at this young age as he is capable of doing a good 20 - 25 hours a week comfortably I feel.

I work part time and a have a social welfare payment which is reduced due to my working , however I do not have a medical card as I am slightly over the limit, though I am told I could get a gp one, it is the regular one that is more important as I pay 100 per month for his XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX and yet we very rarely need the doctor.

Because of his size I have to search high and low for clothes, he is not fussy and never looks for designer items but it is hard to get something that reflects his age and his size in regular shops so in general it costs a lot more. His feet are size 15 wide fitting so again regular shops do not sell these.

Does anyone know of any extra help he could get or where I can direct him for the future.

Thanks

Re: help for son with pituitary illness

Hi JamieB and welcome to AAM,

Please note that on AAM we do not discuss medical issues.

We do not discuss medical issues other than to provide links to support groups and medical forums. We do not allow recommendations for doctors, dentists or medical practitioners generally. We do not allow discussion of weight loss issues either as they always develop into either advertising or medical topics such as anorexia.
You may discuss tax relief on medical expenses and pricing of medical services or health insurance. It is ok to provide information on the availability of emergency doctors or 24 hour pharmacies. But you should not discuss effectiveness of treatment or quality of care.

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moved from Redundancy and unemployment to Welfare and State Benefits.

Questions about financial help or supplementary benefit through social welfare can of course be discussed.

moderator

Have you ever applied for disability allowance for him
Have you ever applied for a medical card for him only

Check with your local social worker on what you are entitled too.

If he is classified with a disability, then you are entitled to alot more. Sorry but I dont meant to use that term "classified".


Would you not be better off quitting the part time job as you would probably be better off unemployed ?

If you give yourself the title of carer....
you could be entitled to :
>free medical card for both himself and yourself.
>free bus and rail travel
>part suppliment towards your mobile or lan line bills
>part suppliment towards your heating and or your electricity bills
>free tv licence
>carers allowance


I know a family who have a family member with a disability in their home, they are getting the above entitlements + about 250 - 300 or so a week on the social welfare for the carer and the disabled person combined together.

No he is not entitled to a medical car on his own as it goes on my income as I am supporting him. I have thought about disability benefit but I am back to the issue of encouraging him not to do anything at all whereas he is a fine big lad and is capable of working but I just dont feel full time. Also I suppose I dont actually see him fitting the bill of disabled , its almost like he is in some sort of grey area, you know in between the black and the white. Thank you though for your reply

Hi Alexandra,

Thank you for your response. I would hate to give up the little part time job I have, I really love it and then I would be completely back in the social welfare system instead of getting out of it. As I said I have a reduced payment from them. I think some extra help for him would be wonderful financially, my sanity is all important to care for him and his younger brother and Im afraid if I gave up work I would feel a tad on the downside if you get me. Thanks though

I think you may need to rethink. He is an adult but appears to have some level of impairment and with the best of care from you, he still would have more independence if he had some more income of his own. Some of these allowances would take cogniscence of his abilities and allow him to do some work. Check out the following link and talk to you GP . [broken link removed]
On that site it also tells you the procedure for assessment of disability. Your GP/Public Health nurse should be able to guide you. People have varying degrees of ability/disability and maybe he would be more confident in his abilities if he less financial dependence on you. Remember years ago perfectly healthy students attending university were entitled to medical cards, so if he is entitled to something, my advice would be to take it. That's what you and the rest of us pay tax for. Best of luck

JamieB,
As mentioned above, your son could apply for Disability Allowance (DA), which is means-tested (but not on your income, only on his). One of the criteria for qualifying for DA is that the person is unable to take up the type of employment that a person of that age would normally be capable of doing if he/she did not have a disability. From your post it sounds as if he may meet this requirement, as he would not be able to hold down a full-time job.

Getting DA won't stop him from attending classes, or working part-time, as persons in receipt of DA can take up work of a rehabilitative nature and earn up to €120 per week without affecting their entitlement.

Once he has his own income, he could get a medical card in his own right which would save money on prescription costs.

Persons claiming carer's allowance can work up to 15 hrs per week, so you might be able to claim and continue working.

You'll find information on www.welfare.ie , follow the links for "person with an illness or disability" and "a carer" in the centre of the webpage.

Thank you Brianne and Gipimann, I did telephone re disability to the dept of community affairs and I explained that I didnt want to encourage him to be on welfare etc but was there some help for him. I explained his circumstances and I was passed around and nobody was able to help. Im not that concerned about payment for myself at this stage, if he gets sorted so Carers benefit is not something I would apply for plus I work 25 hours and I know I could not cut this down and I want to get out of the system not go back into being welfare dependent if you know what I mean. The help would have been appreciated 6 or 8 years ago when I was at the end of my tether dealing with the onset of his surgery, reoccurences and radiotherapy on top of enduring this life long condition. Why social workers who came to talk to me in the hospital never went through benefits or help that I could avail of I will never know. Anyway, I suppose we should fill in the form and send it off and see what happens. Thanks again