Inheritance and care home fees

AIUI 7 years relates to IHT. Deprivation is (mostly) about motive.

If you take steps long before care needs/costs are an issue you should be OK; it's actually quite rare to need care.

Problems start when, as here, the wife's care needs are established.

I assumed he was in full-time work, which is why I mentioned private carers. OP would do the care evenings and overnight, with carers coming in during the day.
Do you think it can't be done? Thousands of women up and down the country are already doing it, saving the taxpayer an absolute fortune.

As for the outings - restaurants and theatres are not cheap, and I strongly suspect that OP would enjoy them more than his wife with her limited capacity.

I sit on a committee with lots of doctors. They have told me about continuing health care and how hard it is to access. From the little information I have, it sounds like your wife should have her care paid for by the NHS. You will have to FIGHT for this but don’t give up. Most people are successful on appeal.

I can’t believe the response from some of the posters - this is medical care that the nhs should fund. Would you all be happy to pay for your hip replacements and cataract surgery ?

the other way to put the money out of reach of the council would be to leave it to grandchildren (your children) if there are any. But of course you and your wife would have no access to that money.

good luck

1. The country is on its knees financially and those that can pay their way should be doing so.

2. The OP has a choice. Arrange 24 hr care for his wife at home and use the £180 inheritance. Or the money pays for her care home because she will go above the savings threshold.

3. To counter the argument about assets already having been taxed at source (income tax) A sizeable chunk of the value of most properties is due to inflationary growth.

4. To expect the state to pay for elderly care like in the good old days is naive in the extreme. Will you pay more tax to cover this? What would you cut to fund this? Health, education, defence, roads?

5. We all have a duty to think about how we will manage in our old age. Especially if we have means. Trying to run off into the sunset with an inheritance while expecting the state to pay for elderly care, is quite honestly, offensive.

6. I get that there is inequality, and some families face enormous bills due to long drawn out illness. The country needs an honest debate about that. Anyone expect politicians to level with the public on this? I don't.

7. Passing large amounts of wealth down the generations is one of the biggest contributors to financial inequality in this country.

That doesn't solve the problem that the motive for setting up the trust is to deprive Essex CC of the assets.

If MIL is alive and is deemed capable then she can write her will however she wants whether it is to op or to the cats home and will have no effect on the daughters financial position.

I don't have any advice for you. The system is the way it is. I think that care costs are exactly the sort of thing that should be largely funded socially. For the elderly, and even more so for the younger people who need it. It's a grim financial lottery otherwise, with some people who have good health all their life able to leave funds for their family to inherit, while others through bad luck are unable to do that. We accept that the state pays for health care regardless of means to pay, why not for this sort of care, at least to a basic level? I hope this is changed soon.

Having said that, I also think that inheritance tax should be higher. Same principle - why should some people inherit large amounts, and others, through no fault of their own, don't?

Well, Essex County Council won’t be taking her money, she will be funding her care from her inheritance. That is paying the home car fees herself . I don’t understand your issue.

Totally agree. My DM went into a care home last year, her house has recently been sold and so now she has over £200k in the bank she is paying her own fees. She's only 70 and not in bad physical health, so I assume most of it will go to her fees.

Would my DSis and I prefer to each pocket a hundred grand? Well of course! But that's not how it works.

@Hateam To give you some practical advice, it may be best for your MIL to set up what is called a "trust for a vulnerable beneficiary".

In this way your wife's inheritance will pass directly into the trust which will then be used for her daughter's benefit but it is not passed to her directly and so is not counted when it comes to means testing.

The trust can be set up either now or on the death of your MIL.

Please speak to a professional advisor about this.

I didn't say you did!

Your difficulty I think is that given (a) your wife's situation and (b) her Mother's age and ongoing care needs pretty much anything is going to be seen as deprivation.

If the main reason for any transaction is 'we don't want this money going to Essex CC' then it's exactly what deprivation means. If your MiL were to rewrite her will so the money went to you or your children and she does that so as to remove it from her daughter's financial means for care it'll be seen as notional capital.

Expert advice may come up with something technical or involved but even then....

I think you're stuck!!

Obviously you are right, no one is eager to cough up huge sums in care fees and thus deplete a family inheritance but............
Tough cookie - if a relative needs care and the money is there in the family, those fees need to be paid.
The fees need to be paid. If you've got the money then you pay.

I didn't say that.

I said he need to get legal advice.

So nasty.

If she had another illness, the NHS would pay.
The line between the NHS paying and the family is very unclear.

Don't you understand?

We all pay for other people's illnesses and care and benefits through taxation. We pay tax for education even though we may not have children. Some people pay for the potholes to be repaired even though they don't drive.

I didn't comment on that, just that he doesn't have any savings at the moment! I'd be wary of giving someone advice on how to switch their vulnerable wife's inheritance over to their name.

Many people need 24 hour care who don’t qualify for NHS continuing care.
it is slightly unusual for a married younger person to be in a care home and not have a team of carers at home instead but not unheard of.

I partially agree, here. Those who have worked and done well should have access to the welfare system as much available to them as those who have not. My acceptance of this is based on the notion that the well-off must receive something back from the welfare state in order to encourage them not to find ways of circumventing their investment in it; e.g. I think everyone should receive Child Benefit for all their children, irrespective of income (and also that the default payment should be to the mother).

That’s very rude, he’s not a scumbag at all, he is protecting his wife’s assets, she may well need the money in years to come.
I hope you’re prepared to see everything you’ve worked and saved for your whole life disappear in a few short years on care home fees which are by the way astronomical and need looking into.