Lately there has been a great deal of talk, about the Harper Economic Plan, and the Tax Cuts he is doling out, for those who plan to renovate their homes. And yet, I wonder, if that is practical, or even helpful, because in order to get a tax savings of a grand or more, you have to spend a fair amount of cash. Now I get the idea, to get people spending, but what about putting the money to where it can actually help people out?
Tax Cuts are okay, when they provide help, relief to those in need. I mean giving a $100 a month for daycare, means zip if the family is earning over a hundred grand, yet can be helpful, if the family earns under thirty grand, but what about home caregivers?
Frankly, I have given up working, other than online, in order to properly care for my Mother. I don’t mind that, in fact in some ways, it is good, because I think my temperment is better suited to being my own boss, but you know, the costs involved in looking after a person, is not cheap.
Take for example a package of depends for women. You get about 16 or 18 pads, depending on the absorbancy, for around $20 per package. With an average change of 4 times per day, a super absorbency package of 16 will last 4 days. That works out to just over SEVEN PACKAGES PER MONTH or $120.00 plus per month.
THAT IS OVER FOURTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS A YEAR FOR DEPENDS ALONE!
Add into that, sanitary gloves that you need, for changing, for insuring you dont spread any infection to them, or them to you, at about $10 per hundred, and already the bill for the year is rising. Keep in mind, you need 2 gloves for every depend change, which would be at least 8 gloves per day. That means you need at least 2 boxes per month, which is another $20, or $260.00 per year.
ADD into that extra cost for laundry supplies, and bleach, because you have to insure that you kill any germs from urine or feces in her clothes, and you don’t want to spread that to the rest of the household. Factor in the added energy costs for doing more laundry, because you need to use HOT WATER instead of COLD.
Then there is the cost of sanitary garbage bags. I mean you can’t put soiled depends into grocery plastic bags, can you? Not without having a lot of added clean up everytime you empty the special garbage container. They run about $6 per package of 30, which is less than a month’s use. Then there is the need for antiseptic air freshener. I mean the smell is not pleasant, and it does fill the whole household, so you do need a can of lysol or something similar, and that is about $5 per can, and you do use a lot of it.
And yet as a family member, and primary caregiver for my Mother, I cannot claim any of those essentials off my taxes, either Federal or Provincial. I can’t claim the added energy costs, which our Hydro charges me extra for, because I use more than the average household. Like I am going to wash urine soaked nightshirts in cold water? Or not do laundry most every day, because she goes through towels, nightshirts, and housecoats more often, due to her incontinence?
So tax cuts to make your home more valuable, is nice, but what about us, the people in the trenches, who have to give up our jobs, who have to run up and down stairs several times to do laundry, that never seems to end? How about us, who have to figure out whether we can afford a $30 a month video rental fee, or buy that extra package of depends. Both are for her, but sometimes, it gets that close.