Inheritance and care home fees

The money won’t be going to the council, it will be going to the care home to pay for her care.

The new Labour govt have kicked this particular can of worms into the long grass - again.

i have much sympathy for the OP and for anyone who is seeing their carefully accumulated family assets handed over to the care home chains. the only winners in the current system are the businesses who operate the homes.

It’s the unfairness of it that really grates: there is no way to predict who will need care and who will not. All social care should be provided by the state and funded from taxes, just as medical care is currently. A tax on inheritance is the obvious way to do it. This means that everyone contributes, and the care is there for everyone who needs it - rich or poor. Needing nursing or residential care isn’t a lifestyle choice! It’s not something people should have to save up for (unless they want to go private) any more than they should have to save up in case they need cancer treatment or a knee replacement!

the current system lets the rich off the hook (because they can afford to put arrangements in place to secure their assets), and it leaves the middle earners - whose family home might be their only big asset - propping up the whole system. And again, the only beneficiaries are the care home chains.

OP - this thread is very identifying. Ask for it to be pulled before some gobshite sends it to ECC.

What I don't understand is that even if this is possible, what will you spend it on that will benefit your wife?

Care benefits your wife.

Can she realistically go on a 5* holiday to the Maldives? Live at a home she owns?

What an awful shameful post this is.

& do you know what national is led care homes were like? I do my mom ran one when she took over the smell of wee greeted you at the front door. The staff did the best they could with little resources. The place when she took over was filthy. I was only 12yrs old remember an old lady that had got cancer of the nose she just had a dressing over the top as there was just a hole in her face. As for councils not making a profit most of them are near bankrupt, they need to make a profit to keep going.

No money is being transferred anywhere until MIL dies
Nobody is entitled to know the contents of that will until the person dies. Not the beneficiaries. Not the council. It matters not one jot until the person dies.
If that person wants to make changes to the will at any time they can do so assuming they are of sound mind etc.
No one can be accused of deprivation of assets because those assets belong to the MIL until she dies.

The NHS will contribute up to £220 a week for care homes in certain cases.

what do you mean Universal credit is stopping at the end of this year?

No, your wife’s inheritance will be classed as her savings.

However, if your wife, due to medical needs is receiving ‘continuing NHS care’ then it’s not affected.

So who do you think should pay for your wife's care if and when she inherits around 180k @Hateam? Presumably someone other than yourself? The working tax payer? Or do you support the government increasing the deficit more and more until the currency collapses, impacting everyone? No wonder the country is on its knees when people don't want to take any personal responsibility.
Why is it that you think it is giving money to the county council? Your wife, very sadly, needs care. You would be paying for the service she is receiving, not donating money to the council. What an odd way to think of things.

There seem to be several people on this thread who are confusing medical care, which is funded at present. I dare say the OP's wife has received and continues to receive a great deal of medical care.
Social care, however, is different. At present, the wife is also receiving all of this at tax payer expense because the couple have apparently not managed to accumulate any significant savings. If she does inherit money, she needs to use this to pay for the services received, which are considerable if she needs 24 hour care.

I would hate to give the council money. Unless, err, they were looking after my loved one

And they do.

Agree,

My father is in a nursing home, paying £1,800 a week.
I am only able to work part-time, earning about £8,000 a year. I was his unpaid carer for five years before he went to the home.
Universal credit is being stopped at the end of this year.
When my father's cash runs out, I will be required to sell his bungalow. Then, when the proceeds from that is eventually is down to £25,000, the local authority will step in and pay.
It hurts like hell, but that's life sometimes.
The new government have already said they won't cap how much people should pay.

What a devastating situation for you and your wife to be in. I understand why you would pose a question like this (and I'm shocked at the poster who has sent this thread to the council, that has to be a Mumsnet first!) it seems grossly unfair that you're dealt this hand in life and the woman you love is so unwell. As it stands the system is the system and, unless you find a good financial advisor to support you through this, that money will need to be spent on your wife's care on your mother in law's passing.

To start with, Scotland is part of the UK - they are not two different entities.

And residential care is most definitely not free in Scotland - some limited costs are met by the public purse, but my elderly DF with advanced Alzheimers is paying over £5,000 per month for his nursing home.

£180k is a lot of money just to take someone out and about lol! £180k is a luxury and struggle to see how it relates to your dad, different situation. No one would choose to be in a home or be disabled and OP doesn’t state he’s miserable? You seem very angry, I’d suggest some counselling.

No advice OP but I wanted to say it’s very sad you and your wife are in this position and I wish you all the best.

Speak to a solicitor about the option of setting up a trust.

Agree, but why can Scotland government be so different, they don't have to pay nursing care or residential care, why is uk so bad, my dad paid out of his state pension and little private pension towards his nursing care and was left with £12.50 pocket money aweek, over time fee's went up and family had to pay 'top up '

I understand your position completely.

If your MIL can change her will she can leave it to you or leave it in a discretionary trust of which your wife is the beneficiary. We set up something similar with co-op legal.

Either way it will not be taken into account by the council - your wife's contribution to her care costs will be based on money which is in her name only.

Some of you have very little imagination about people's care needs. Just because someone can be taken out occasionally it does not mean they could be cared for full-time at home.

An example: when my late father was 76 he had a very severe stroke. It left him unable to walk and paralysed in his left arm. He was incontinent and needed to wear adult nappies. He could no longer speak apart from the odd word. It was difficult for him to make his needs known. He was on warfarin and needed his blood checked daily by nursing staff. He needed dressing, bathing and transferring from his wheelchair to his bed - a trained, two carer job. He needed supervision with feeding.

He was able to come home to my mother's non adapted bungalow for a few hours on a Saturday afternoon. There was no way my mother, also in her 70s, would have been able to have cared for him at home for longer than a few hours.

So please do not assume that if someone is able to be taken out by a relative for an occasional meal or to a show that the family member could safely care for them full-time at home.

He did get continuing care (which can be very difficult to get) and most of his nursing and care home fees were paid for by the local authority. They still took his pension apart from a small amount of "pocket money".

He needed care for 6 years before he died fairly suddenly of kidney failure.

I hope none of you find yourselves or your relatives in this situation.

I hear where you're coming from OP. Wishing you well