Fed up of reading threads asking how they can get out of paying care home fees.

I agree in principle but that depends what is wrong with the ageing relative. There are some folk who require 24 hour supervision.

You know last night I was thinking I want to know who the local smack dealer is, so I can say goodbye to my children and give myself a lovely jab into oblivion if the alternative is dementia.

But the point is, if the care was adequate, and being administered by qualified people, then it might not be as much of an issue. There are so many very poorly run care homes, where our elderly are 'cared' for by uneducated people who have not chosen to the job as a vocational thing, but because its one of the very few jobs they can get with little or no qualifications. I'd like to see huge improvements in training and better pay to attract better staff.

Will you really care that much about having fancier facilities when you're ill enough to need care?

Take good advice on that. You don't want to find yourself evicted by your children and their partners.

Absolutely disagree. There has been nothing financially astute about the fact that our house is now worth ten times what we paid for it a quarter of a century ago. That has been nothing but undiluted luck. All it would have taken would have been a little bit of bad luck for us to have lost the house long ago and ended up living in rented accommodation instead.

I intend to transfer my assets to my kids while I'm still young and don't require care. Why wait?

If that adult child is regarded as vulnerable in some way - e.g. disabled - then they can remain. Otherwise they cannot, as the house will need to be sold to cover care costs.
A resident vulnerable or elderly resident can stay.

If the asset was sold off year’s ago then what?

@Vinvertebrate - it's not 7 years for deprivation of assets

Then you will have no choice should you need care. Being able to pay will get you a better quality of life.

Bill who, a dementia patient?

But if you have cancer and finish up in a nursing home then you DO have to pay, unless you fulfill all the very stringent criteria for CHCF.

You do realise that people can work like dogs their whole life and make sacrifices for decades just to get by. My parents could never have afforded a property despite always working. They and generations before them lived in rented/social housing. Just becuase someone hadn’t had the privilege to amass a substantial estate does not make them scroungers and they haven’t “pissed their money up the wall” as mentioned by a previous poster.

I don't know about Biker47, but I'm planning for a bottle of whisky and a very cold night. Let's hope I'll still be able to get myself outside!

What happens is that the LA treat you as though the money were still in your bank account and bill you accordingly.

It's the same story. People who are living off the state constantly, not just a stop gap. No mortgage or standard rent prices. Car on motability even though their condition has improved enough they no longer need high rate care. Call out for free repairs when needed.

All the rest of us mugs who scrimp and save while working extra get stuck with nothing.

I honestly feel like an idiot sometimes when I see the life some people have when they know how to play the system.

I do not mean people in genuine emergency need. I mean people who know full well they are better and absolutely scam the system.

Yes, I totally agree. Which is why the reference to “earners” stuck in my craw a bit, as I’m currently in the 60-odd% tax no-mans land and have already maxed my pension. The gov needs to find a better way than never-ending fiscal drag for anyone working, that’s for sure.

I agree. A friend of mine has two very elderly parents (well up in their 90s) both with dementia, both now in care homes. One has been in and out of hospital recently. There is a DNR notice in place and my friend and sibling have POA and have been very clear that their parent should be getting end of life care only. In spite of this the HCPs keep on treating the various conditions - to what end? The parent no longer has any quality of life. It's not what I would want for myself or anyone I love.

Personally I would rather forfeit my inheritance than have the responsibility of caring for my parents.

I saw my Mum do it and it destroyed her. The responsibility was massive and not worth any amount of money she got from a house sale. My Nana also never got the care she deserved either. She refused a home right until the end.

Tenants in common can will their half of the house to someone other than the shared occupant and on their death it goes to the other person in form of a trust that cannot be used for care fees for the remaining person as they don't own it.

My father has been in a care home 11 years now. It’s financially crippling the family.

Am in the middle of selling my mum's fairly modest home to fund care home fees.

If her care was taxpayer funded, then my sister and I would inherit over £100k each when mum dies. Whilst that would be very welcome, it would only happen at the expense of other tax-payers...

Assuming all assets in the UK by that point (unlikely), IHT can be avoided by giving away assets more than 7 years before death. If HMRC is satisfied that no tax is due, I imagine it’s quite difficult for a LA to show deprivation of assets (?) Most LA’s couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery ime, so the idea that our LA is poised to whisk inheritances away with stealthy efficiency is pretty laughable.

We’ve got a UK trust set up for disabled DS as well as plenty of assets/money abroad. I hope to spend anything left over on the things he will need when we’re gone, long before the care home calls.

Edited for typo.

Blackbookofsmiles1 · Today 10:06
Our home will be going into trust for my, kids, I’m not paying care home fees whilst others who never sacrificed monthly (FOR DECADES) to pay for a property like I have, get it free!
......
Was it enjoyable sacrificing monthly for decades?

I know we were hard up for a long period, paying mortgage, bills etc, but I never thought of it as a 'sacrifice'. It was just part of life, plenty of others in the same boat, no choice really. It doesn't last forever, things eventually get easier.

Those who 'get it for free', if indeed it is completely free and I don't know enough to judge, often didn't earn enough to be able to pay a big mortgage but they still paid tax and did their best, hopefully brought up contented children who have grown into unselfish adults, people who are not waiting for their parents to die in order to inherit.

I am quite happy for my tax to contribute to the welfare of those in need, that's what the welfare state is about. It could have been me. As a pensioner I don't pay much now but every little helps.