My older sister is disabled and was living alone. She lives with me now. Is there any financial assistance I can get as a caregiver?

It’s not you who would qualify for assistance with your expenses—there’s nothing available for that. it’s your sister who would qualify for a caregiver if she’s medically and finally eligible. If she has an income, she should be contributing to the household financially which would include paying you. If she’s low income & on Medi-cal, she may be eligible for IHSS (in home support services) (again she has to be medically eligible) which would provide her with a caregiver & she would be able to hire you as the caregiver and the program would pay you minimum wage. She’ll be approved for a certain number of hours a week and there are only certain duties you can be paid for. If she’s not eligible for that and not a veteran than there’s really nothing else in this state so she will have to use her own $ to pay you.

peggykimber44, the vast majority of family caregiver do not get paid :( Unless the person they are caring for can pay them from their savings. If that is possible, then you would need to draw up a caregivers agreement.

If you sister is on Medicaid [which is different from Medicare] check with your State Medicaid office to see if they have a program where you can get some pay. Some States pay minimum wage for a few hours each weeks, other States do pay more.

I see from your profile that your sister is 86 and that you are much younger than her. I assume her children are around 60 something years old

Please note, it will not be easy for anyone pushing 70 years old to be a full-time, 168 hours a week caregiver. You will be doing the work of 3 full-time shift caregivers each and every day. That is probably the reason your sister's children have decided they just cannot do that, and that their Mom would be better being in a skilled facility where the caregivers know what to do in every situation.

Enjoy your time with your sister living at home, but don't be surprised when the time comes that you can no longer go at that pace.