Care home - what happens when money runs out?

[Greentime101]

We are looking at putting one of my parents into a care home as the dementia has become to difficult to manage.

As I understand the house value wont be drained as the other parent will remain in the property. The joint savings will be halved and as soon as that value goes below £23.5k then the local authority will pay for the care (less pension etc)

So here we are choosing a care home, local to us, good reviews etc etc but realistically we will only be paying for about 6 months and we will hit the £23.5k threshold - could the local authority force a move to a cheaper home or might the home refuse to take “council” residents?

The home may only take "self funders" and require residents to have a set amount. So like £300,000 in the bank type thing but these are few and far between. Generally when you pick a placement you pay until the threshold then the local authority takes over. They won't tuff him/her out.
Good luck with the move it's always hard at first but they will settle.

We had to use the money from the house as well.

Alot depends on the rate the home is charging. If they charge the rate the council are prepared to pay then they will take over payment. If however you have chosen a more expensive home then they can refuse to pay or require the family to 'top up'. It is likely the home will talk to you about this before they take your mum if you tell them you will not likely be self funding for long.

Whether they will actually ove her depends on what is available in the area (County?) within budget, how 'settled' she is and whether it can be argued it would be medically detrimental to her to do so. (But will be a heart wrenching nightmare for a while for your dad and you whatever happens.)

Technically they can move if over council rate willing to pay. Otherwise people would choose very expensive homes and hope LA would pick up bill. They won't want to move them. The care home should be used to this scenario..make sure they're swsre if situation. My LA trying to get homes to accept a rate of around £750 pw. And once savings go below £23,250 there's then a sliding scale to £14250, at which point savings disregarded

Thank you for great, quick advice