Care home fees

Is that possible? Does the care package allow lots of home carers and is that then capped?

Get a good financial advisor and it will be easier than you think. I have LPA for elderly relative who went into a home 5 years ago, going by how much money she had plus the sale of her house I didn't think she could self fund for 5 years. As it is she has her pension, attendance allowance plus an income from investments. There is as much money now as there was 5 years ago.

Surely the best option is to stay at home and have a live in carer. Pay the live I carer with equity release up to £86k and after that the LA will pay for the carer? That way you avoid hotel costs.

www.communitycare.co.uk/2021/09/22/quick-guide-to-the-cap-on-care-costs/

This will help explain a bit about what is intended. Keep your eye on national press on exact details and proposed implementation start dates.

Make sure as a self funded person that she is claiming higher rate Attendance allowance (if she wasn't in DLA or PIP already from
An under 60 age)

That's £92.40 per week she can claim to help towards care home fees whilst no local authority or nhs is funding her towards placement fees (I don't mean funded nursing care element in a NH but the overall social care needs cost)

No she can't, not now and I beg anyone considering this to get VERY good financial advice on this. I don't know anyone who did this who didn't lose out significantly financially

Yes

It's not been clarified yet but will likely be something like this, similar to Scotland

Good.

That's not true at all. That's related to inheritance tax rules, for your to 7 years before they die (so HMRC will look back). If you gift large sums of money to relatives (whether one or more) when care at home or residential care is considered or someone is in residential care , it is not lawful and called deprivation of assets. The local authority can legally come after those relatives who received it and will treat the person as if they still had it. It's better to seek good legal and specialist financial advice on that.

This "cap" on care home fees in England for self funding people living in care homes has been put back multiple times, and is not in place yet.

Ultimately you want to make sure relative is in the right type of home - residential or nursing home? Dementia registered home? And if they don't have huge assets over the £23,250 threshold that they care home accepts local authority rates when their capital depletes or that they may negotiate down to nearer that.

There is plenty online about how care home fees work. But why not look up the website of the local authority your relative lives in. As that will also have links to their charging policy and explain what people are entitled to and when.

You can buy the an annuity plan to cover fees

Hi My mum is 76, unwillingly been placed in a care home waiting for a package of care

The benefit of self funding is you can choose where to live: mum spent my inheritance with my full blessing 🤣 on a lovely, lovely care home with good food, booze, endless activities and a good proportion of residents who did not have dementia (she didn’t have dementia herself). We took a calculated risk that her money would last and it did.

Get in touch with AGE UK. They are really helpful with all things related to care homes and funding.

@whowhatwerewhy Have you considered a care annuity? It might be something to discuss with an IFA. Just another option.

The local authority do a full audit of your finances.

I suppose if you can find it from a sale of the house, best not to ask them for what won't be given.

It's a good job they don't ask everyone who is ill to fund their own care.

@MissHavershamJoinsTinder if you approach the council for assistance with funding they will ask for these details. If the information they request is not provided they won't fund.

But how on earth would the local authority know what your relative sold their house for and what leans, such as equity mortgages, are against it? Are they involved in the sale in some way, even though your relative won't be funded by them?

In the same way as people have to dig into their savings to pay for medical care, you mean?

Virtually every other major disaster that can befall one can either be insured against (house fire for example) or is in effect insured through the tax system (medical care, costs of rescue after an accident in the outdoors). Just elderly care which is left to the individual - even under the new system.

No, that’s an Inheritance Tax rule, and not at all relevant here. If she starts giving money away when she needs care, the local authority can regard this as “deprivation of assets” and treat her as if she still had those assets. So if she were in a care home for three years, and had got down to £23k having given away a total of £9k, the LA would say “no you’re not down to £23k, you’ve actually got £32. Come and talk again when you’ve spent another £9k on care”