Mark, yes Elements has RAW conversion, but they do very few updates per yearly release of Elements. If you buy a new camera, you likely have to buy a new Elements just to get access to the latest RAW converter (and potentially just sit and wait the for next Elements to be released to ensure you get the converter you need).

I also never got Elements to auto download the updates (it always said there were no updates available, which wasn't true). You need to track down the download link and download it yourself... all the links I checked about RAW 7.4 being added to PSE 11 give manual download links for CC, CC2014, and CS6. I didn't see any Elements download link. I think PSE10 needed a special elements-only download. Anyway, there were posts on the Adobe help forums about "how to I update my PSE11 to Raw 7.4, so perhaps one of those has the link you would need.

The ACR 7.4 update adds T5i support, but I have no idea if T5 is there... they just list additions, not the full list of supported cameras. If T5 was released after the T5i, then it's a pretty safe bet that PSE11 won't support it.