Financial planning is essential to any household, but it can be especially tricky for families with special needs children. 

Understandably, taking care of a child with special needs is often overwhelming and finanical planning can be put on the backburner. Added to that, the needs of extra healthcare and uncertainty of the future can be daunting for both parents and guardians.

The good news is that sensible and early financial planning can help you manage that. Special needs requires special planning and here are three aspects that families might consider:

1. Healthcare

On top of mainstream healthcare services, such as vaccinations, and dental, hospital and clinical visits, special needs children require extra healthcare. Parents have to set aside money for the routine payment of medication, consultation, therapy and rehabilitation. For example, Chloe was diagnosed with Pompe disease when she was just seven months old. Part of her treatment, enzyme replacement therapy, is required at least 26 times a year, with each session costing about $9,500.²

Some special needs children might also be more prone to accidents, such as falls or fractures, thus increasing the frequency of healthcare and, subsequently, bills.

2. Education

When it comes to education, some parents will have to make the decision of whether to enrol their child in a special or mainstream school. Even if you are merely looking at special schools, costs run differently between government and private ones. At The Rainbow Centre Early Intervention Programme, a curriculum set at three days a week, four hours per day, would cost $264 per month for households with a monthly income of between $951 and $1,500. At THK EIPIC, however, a curriculum set at three days per week, two hours per day, would cost $140 for the same tier of households.³ Both programmes are for ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) and non-ASD students alike.

Some parents might even choose to home-school their child due to their highly unique learning abilities and response to stimuli present in a school environment. Ms Choo Kah Ying, a writer and a single mother to her moderately autistic son, home-schools him personally.⁴ Of course, her education plan requires intricate management and planning, as she would need to garner finances to support her child while still having time to home-school her child.

3. Being Future Ready

Let’s imagine a typical scenario. Your child is 25 years old and earning $1,500 a month. At this point, you are well into your 60s and retired. Your house is fully paid for and you have comprehensive medical insurance. At the same time, you will need a medical care fund for your child, if insurance is not available to him or her. You, too, will need retirement funds for you and your spouse. For these needs, we might imagine them to be $5,000 per month multiplied by 20 years, amounting to $1.2 million.

Let’s go further and imagine a scenario that is ultimately inevitable. Your child is now 45 years old with low to no income, while you have passed on. You would have appointed a caregiver for your child, and willed away your house or put it in a trust with the condition that your child live in it till his or her demise. Alternatively, you might state in your will to sell your house, or admit your child to a suitable home. In this scenario, we could take it that your child’s expenses calculated at $3,000 per month of expenses multiplied by 30 years will amount to $1.08 million.

Supporting a family with special needs children requires special courage, strength and tenacity. Especially in the case of these families, it is important to be aware and embark on the appropriate type of financial planning as soon as possible, as extra expenses, relative to most other financial plans, are required.

Taking care of a special needs child may be both backbreaking and heartbreaking at times, but all parents want the best for their children and, at the end of the day, all families desire and deserve to enjoy love and happiness, with financial stress kept to its minimum. Understanding the specific kind of financial planning to be catered for your family is one of the ways to be on your way to achieving this.

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