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For most family caregivers, you might find it challenging to juggle work and look after your children at the same time as we take care of your senior loved ones at home. When, in fact, we may require specialized elderly care services, such as nursing or rehabilitation, or perhaps some assistance accompanying our family members to doctor appointments if they have specific healthcare needs in order to ensure they receive the appropriate medical attention.
Even though they can be helpful, part-time caregivers or foreign domestic helpers can be expensive. Thankfully, subsidies are available in Singapore to assist with the financial burden of providing at-home care for an aging loved one.
The Agency for Integrated Care, which oversees the Home Caregiving Grant, provides individuals who meet the eligibility requirements with $200 per month in compensation. Essentially, this grant is intended to assist in defraying the costs associated with caring for a loved one who has mild to moderate disabilities, whether it be through utilizing community-based skilled caregiver support services, employing a foreign domestic worker, or helping to pay for you to enroll in caregiver education programs.
In retrospect, the Foreign Domestic Worker (FDW) Grant is replaced by the HCG, which is a component of the Ministry of Health’s revised Caregiver Support Action Plan. Moreover, the grant expands the possibilities for respite care that family caregivers can still utilize.
First and foremost, in order to qualify for the Home Caregiving Grant, the care recipient must be a Singaporean citizen or a Singapore permanent resident who lives in the same residence as the candidate and is therefore not a resident of a residential long-term care facility like that of a nursing home.
Additionally, the applicant must pass a means test administered by the Ministry of Health to demonstrate that their annual property worth is less than $13,000 or that their household’s monthly income should be less than $2,800 for each member.
In order to complete a Functional Assessment Report (FAR) and confirm that the patient always requires help and is not capable of accomplishing at least three activities of daily living, the care receiver must be evaluated by a nurse practitioner, physician, or therapist.
In general, an elderly person is deemed to have a moderate permanent disability if they struggle to execute at least three ADLs autonomously and always need the additional support of another person for the duration of the activity.
The following are among the six activities of daily living (ADLs):
The HCG has taken the place of the Foreign Domestic Worker (FDW) Grant as of October 1, 2019. Under this grant, your elderly loved one with a moderate permanent disability can be cared for at no additional expense by using the $200 monthly payout. Even if there are still some resemblances between the HCG and the FDW Grant, there are still a number of significant distinctions:
The compensation per month for the prior FDW grant was $120, while with the current HCG, the grant increased the monthly compensation to $200.
In the past, the requirements to be eligible for the FDW grant were stricter. Care beneficiaries had to be Singaporean citizens, or FDW employers had to be Singaporeans looking after a permanent resident older than 65. Additionally, hired FDWs had to complete or attend caregiver training courses that had been approved by the AIC before they could even begin working.
Now with the current HCG, anyone who has a spouse, kid, or elderly parent who is a Singaporean qualifies for the HCG as long as they are a Singaporean citizen or permanent resident. Additionally, applications are not limited by age, but a residential long-term care facility, such as a nursing home, is not permitted for them to reside.
Applicants for both programs must require assistance with three or more daily living activities, which is another similarity that exists between the two. These include putting on clothes, eating, using the bathroom, transferring, showering, and walking or other forms of mobility.
It determines whether a person has limited financial resources, which enables lower-income households in Singapore to obtain additional subsidies than those belonging to higher-income homes. In order to be eligible for the HCG and FDW Grant, households must have a property worth an annual value of $13,000 or less, or have a monthly salary of $2,800 or less, depending on whether they generate an income or not.
Only the expense of getting foreign domestic workers was intended to be defrayed by the previous FDW grant, which has since been phased down. With the current HCG, the grant pays several caregiving expenses in addition to paying FDWs, including home care services, elderly care services, community-based caregiver support programs, and travel to routine checkups.
In order to apply for the Home Caregiving Grant, follow these simple steps:
On the AIC site, all candidates can download the Long Term Care Schemes Guide & Application Form. Make sure to check the terms and conditions before completing the form with all of your personal information.
Verify that your home has undergone a means test after downloading and completing the application form. You can update your household details on the MOH Household Check webpage if you need to. If in the past you chose not to share your financial information with MOH, you can choose to enable eligibility checks on the site too.
Every HCG candidate must go through a disability assessment to determine whether they require assistance with essential daily living activities. The applicants can accomplish this by going to the community clinic or setting up a meeting with the healthcare professional to get a Functional Assessment Report (FAR).
Finally, your application must now be sent to the AIC after you have completed the first three processes. Make sure you’ve completed and gathered your HCG application form, FAR assessment, or any other accompanying documents that may be required.
There are numerous other ways to get financial assistance and subsidies for seniors in addition to the Home Caregiving Grant. The government has instituted numerous programs to lessen any financial stress in an initiative to make healthcare more accessible and economical for Singaporeans. Sadly, a lot of elderly people and caregivers aren’t even aware that some of these programs are available or that they qualify for them.
Indeed, while caring for an aging loved one at home, assistance of any kind is greatly appreciated. To provide you with a sense of peace and more time with your elders, the Home Caregiving Grant can be employed to help defray the cost of in-home care services and make each of their retirement years the best to live with. You can also seek help from Retire Genie as your partner in getting the best and high-quality eldercare services.
