When my father passed away in June 2016, I became my mothers caregiver (she lives with me). She has dementia (short term memory), and up until 6 months ago, she was o.k. with doing a lot of things herself. Now she's been diagnosed with other issues that are more stressful and time consuming for me. She gives me money every month, but now that things are "different", how does one know how much (as awful as it sounds) they should get paid. I do know, in the area where I live, I'm not getting even "half" of what it would cost my mother if she went into housing for dementia patients. I have 5 other siblings and none of them have lifted a finger to help out. THANK-YOU!
What I did was to look at all her financial statements. Figured out how I could make it all last for 10 years. That was the plan I put in place. But, when the dust settled, she passed away after only 10 months.
Whatever you do...make it a written agreement. Should it ever come to needing Medicaid to cover her expenses...you need written proof the money was not a gift.