My mother repeatedly asks my husband and I to allow her to contribute to our household expenses (she lives with us and I am her fulltime caretaker) I dont know how to do this. I have tried before and my siblings accuse me of stealing from her accounts. I am between a rock and a hard place. I dont want to get paid for taking care of my mother , but on the other hand I would like help with some of the house hold expenses, she at present does not pay rent or utilities . My siblings are so concerned that the money she does have will be gone before they can get their hands on it. So what can I do legally (to protect myself ) to allow mom to pay her share while she is in my home and also keep my siblings from saying I'm stealing from mom?
It is NOT your responsibility to conserve your mother's funds for your siblings to inherit later. Obviously you don't want to rip your mother off, but if your sibs think that paying you is infringing on their inheritance, send them copies of what it would cost for mother to live elsewhere. As vw9729 says, it is your mother's money, not your siblings inheritance.
You do need to make this official and make it clear that mother approves of this arrangement. This is to protect you from groundless accusations by siblings and also make clear that this is not "gift" money in case mother ever runs out of funds and needs to apply for Medicaid. If you've used an elder law attorney for things like POA and Medical POA, etc., go back to that firm for a simple contract. If those other documents are not in place, it would be a good time to have it all taken care of.