Work. Whether you’re lucky enough to have found your true calling or simply view it as a means of financing your latest adventure, work is an inescapable and intrinsic part of our lives. A dementia diagnosis may feel like the rug of financial security has been pulled from under you. Mortgage repayments, hire purchase agreements, everyday bills: the thought of not being to pay them could cause additional stress and strain during an already highly emotional time.
It is important to remember that you are and will remain an asset to your employer. Depending on your job role, with the right support in place, you may be able to continue working in the same position. Talking to your employer at an early stage can help ensure that you can work together, putting a plan in place that ensures you can maintain your working rights and independence for as long as you feel comfortable. A flexible plan that takes into consideration your changing needs and requirements and builds in flexible options to be implemented as your condition progresses can help ensure you continue to utilise, and your employer continues to benefit from, your skills and knowledge. Under the Equalities Act 2010 (https://bit.ly/2GqKV7j), employers are required to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ in order to support you to remain in employment. These can be physical adjustments to your working station, changes to working hours or rescheduling meetings to more suitable times or venues.
If you’ve organised a ‘step down’ approach to employment, with the aim of lessening working hours, your financial planner can help you ensure that your new income can still support your goals. We’ll take your changing situation and variable income into consideration and will work with you to ensure that the money you have worked hard for continues to work hard for you: supporting your immediate and long-term life goals.
With 42,325 people aged under 65 receiving a dementia diagnosis (https://bit.ly/2D8z23J), it’s more important than ever that employers support individual’s to remain in meaningful employment. A dementia diagnosis needn’t mean the end of your working life. With a little careful planning you should be able to continue working and contributing to your long-term emotional, physical and financial wellbeing.
If you’re looking for some advice on managing your finances alongside dementia, take a look through our blog (https://bit.ly/2Uzt6vn) or download our Later Life Toolkit for free resources and insight into how you can continue to live well with dementia (https://bit.ly/2FGn95n).