Pros and Cons of Sponsoring a Live-in Caregiver

A live-in caregiver is someone who lives in the same residence as the client and provides a range of homecare services (such as personal care, homemaking, companionship, running errands and more).

Some of the service inquiries we receive at Carefect Homecare Services are from potential clients who are looking to sponsor a live-in caregiver. After additional information gathering and as part of our assessment process, we found that a live-in caregiver is often perceived as a replacement to the family member caregiver and is expected to be available 24 hours – 7 days a week. Usually, the main reason for the inquiry is that the family caregivers need to attend to their daily obligations but were concerned of leaving their loved one without supervision or care. However, we often find that these potential clients are not aware of all the facts with regards to sponsoring a live-in caregiver and what other options are available. Here are some of the Pros and Cons to be considered before sponsoring a live-in caregiver:

Pros

• The caregiver will always be available and dedicated to provide the appropriate care to address the client’s immediate needs. Having a live-in caregiver does provide the continuous “peace of mind” to the family knowing that their loved ones are receiving the care they require.
• Most caregivers are trained to provide CPR and First Aid and will call for help in case of a medical emergency.
• When sponsoring a live-in caregiver, with the exception of extreme cases, the employment period is for at least few years which allow the caregiver to get familiarized with the client’s special needs and care requirements.
• The overall cost is not calculated on an hourly basis which may result in a lower monthly cost.

Cons

• When sponsoring a live-in caregiver the client will be the caregiver’s formal employer (which requires a business number). This includes the need to provide paystubs, record of employment, providing annual T4 forms and paying CPP and EI (both employee and employer deductions). Although there are free online tools to perform these tasks, it is often recommended to use professional accountant.
• As with any employee, the caregiver salary must meet the minimum wage and other work related provisioning such as: maximum number of working hours per day and a maximum 5 day work week (2 days off), mandatory vacation days, allowing for sick days and allow sufficient time (that must be consecutive and
  uninterrupted) for sleeping and personal down time. If a client requires more than 10 hours of daily service or around the clock supervision (e.g. Wandering issues) – special arrangements need to be made such as a secondary caregiver.
• In addition to all the costs mentioned above, the current sponsoring process requires that the sponsor will pay for the caregiver’s travel fare (usually a plane ticket) and will provide medical coverage for the first three months once the caregiver arrived to Canada.

For these reasons, our clients often realizes that sponsoring a live-in caregiver may not provide them with the complete care service coverage they need and that other options should be considered for various reasons (special needs, associated costs and more).

We at Carefect Homecare Services offer a live-in care program where the caregivers are our employees and do not require sponsorship (eligible to work in Canada).

If you have additional questions or require more information on the subject, The Carefect team and our homecare services advisors will be happy to assist and answer your questions over the phone (416-848-4571) or by scheduling a free in-home assessment using our online form.

More information about our Homecare Services can be found here.