Am I right that most elderly people must self-fund care if they have assets?

Why should the people who had the foresight to save money (and potentially deprive themselves of luxuries in the process as my grandma did - I have never known anybody as frugal) have to pay when those who didn’t bother get their care funded??

You are correct. Any application for State funded care will be "means tested".

That sounds like MHA Section 117 funding and is quite different from CHC.

As @Mischance says. But beware some will writing companies will tell you otherwise to.try and sell expensive trusts. We kicked one out because he was telling out and out lies and trying to sell a complicated will at a cost of £2500+ each. Fortunately we already had experience if the actual rules.

Yes, that's basically how it works. The only difference with self funded care is that you have more choice. It works with at home care too. - there is of course the option for someone to top up. Whilst awaiting the CHC appeal for my late OH I paid the difference between what the LA were prepared to pay and the actual cost. It was laughingly called a "top-up", but in fact I was paying about 7/8 of the bill from our joint funds. Luckily he got the CHC on appeal and everything I had paid out was refunded to me.

Even if the spouse dies and the partner is still in a care home and the house has been left to them or at least half? - if the spouse living at home dies and the residential/nursing home resident inherits, then this becomes their asset and will be taken into account, the expectation being that the house will be sold. Once it is the LA can recoup any money they have paid out from the moment of inheritance.

The person you were responding to who said:

"It cannot and will not be ‘taken’ for fees later on."

Was wrong. In the scenario you give, then yes, the house (or her share of the house) will be treated as capital from the date of death of the spouse, but not before that date.

So, depending on the value of her share of the home she will need to self-fund from the date of death of her spouse onwards.

If the house is left to the care home resident it IS taken into account fully

I agree with paying for my care, but it totally pisses me off that fees of self-funders are inflated to cover those of LA clients.

Well, with tongue in cheek... ish... when AI takes all the jobs, it will free up people to care for multiple generations at home (as no one will be able to afford to move out)

A home is always disregarded for financial assessment if a spouse or dependent adult over 55 lives there.
It cannot and will not be ‘taken’ for fees later on.

I know someone who has successfully claimed CHC.Her care in a home has so far been funded for 18 months. It's not means tested so her income is increasing. She has cash assets of almost £1m which she receives monthly interest and dividend income on. She also receives rental income as well as her State Pension. So basically her beneficiaries are going to do very well indeed as whilst the state is funding her care, she isn't spending any money. I know all of this because I do her Tax Return.

I agree. Especially with fewer people owning their own homes these days.

I fear we are sitting on a timebomb, unfortunately. The population is getting older and sicker. The nation is virtually bankrupt. How on earth are we going to fund the costs of care for all the frail, sick, elderly people in the decades to come?

I don't understand ....in the UK you have money, you pay for care home. You don't have money, you are sent to one of their choice and they pay it for you

This is useful for people but there really is no point in doing it unless the wills are also updated. Updating wills is likely to cost more than £500 plus vat per person since that is about an hour's work for a solicitor and meeting with the client alone will take that amount of time. You're probably looking at closer to £750 plus vat (so £900 in total for the consumer) for basic wills nowadays and in most cases where the will maker is sophisticated enough to be considering changing the way in which they hold their property it will be more, particularly if there are competency issues for one party. I'd still budget a few thousand - but it can save hundreds of thousands.

"It would only cost a few thousand pounds..."

In England & Wales (I presume also in Scotland?) you can do it yourself free of charge.

You need to complete application form SEV to enter a Form A restriction on severance of a joint tenancy by agreement or notice:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/form-a-restriction-application-to-enter-sev

There is no charge for doing this.

However, you would likely want to update your will after doing this and this is where you really do need a solicitor. A will that will cover the situation where the couple are tenants in common and the surviving spouse has a right to occupy the property will probably cost around £500 each - so around £1,000 for two people.

Most people of this age do own their home as joint tenants however it’s a very simple legal process to change it. It would only cost a few thousand pounds max and could save hundreds of thousands.

Yes, I do understand this, we considered it with Dparents but decided against. I should have said "if joint tenants". I must admit I assumed most were joint tenants.

MIL had a severe stroke that left her paralysed, incontinent and non verbal but her care needs were stable and could be done by carers not a nurse so no CHC.
FIL had metastatic prostate cancer, diabetes atrial fibrillation amongs other things and and an intolerance to pain relief. He couldn't tolerate opiates at all and anything else other than paracetamol caused severe diarrhea and vomiting. This meant his blood sugars, heart rate and bloods needed frequent monitoring and his medication adjusted on a daily basis. He got CHC.

Yeah, I looked into for my late Mum, but she actually got CHC funding (and then passed away within a few months). We were modelling on the shortfall between pension income and attendence allowance, and care home fees with an annual percentage increase built in. It would have cost several hundred thousand pounds.

You can buy these to cover a guaranteed portion of the fees if one to cover full fees is too expensive.

Where i worked you had to have evidence of 3 years funding, but there was the guarantee. Whereabouts in the country are you? I can PM you the name if it would be local to you