My Mother has lived with us for 18 years. She has never paid for anything. She now has dementia, and needs help. She can no longer take care of herself completely. I am her POA. I am in charge of her money and bills. She wants to pay me for care giving. How do we do this legally? She has very little money, only her SSI, and her Life Ins. money.
How advanced is her dementia? If she has not been formally declared incompetent, and you can show that she is able to understand what she is doing, there is no reason why she should not create a caregiving agreement by which you can be paid specifically for personal care.
But I should leave her life insurance in place ready for funeral expenses (may she live forever). You say she's never paid for anything - so what happens to her SSI? Can she not pay you from that?
She can not do this retroactively, it has to be present to future.
Search the internet and this site for a contract that you can copy.
Are her final wishes taken care of? If not it would be a good idea to find out how much and set it aside.
Good luck.