Heartbroken that I'm being forced to sell mum's house, she worked hard for it and paid her national insurance

[Jkoakham]

And now her savings are running out I will need to sell her house to carry on funding it.

It all seems to very unfair, her house was supposed to be passed to me but instead it's affectively passed to government and private companies.

I thought the dimentia tax had been can cancelled?

If her home is big enough can you move in, continue to work and pay for her to be cared for there? Or is her house far too far?

The trouble is, that sacrifices always have to be made, in these sort of circumstances. In the event that no one has wanted taxes to go up for years and years sufficiently to cover the extra costs of social care and the NHS, then this is what happens.

We've been talking about this particular demographic timebomb since the 80s, so there's been time for everyone to get their heads around it.

...and what if you ve not got a house to sell? home ownership has tanked so the next generation wont have one to fund long term care.

I get people dont want higher taxes, however what i dont get is the recent (on-going) £10billion in corp tax rate cuts that will go to some of the UK's richest companies, with no obligation to do anything with the savings and yet everyone is perfectly ok with it. then there is increases in Inheritance tax thresholds, again, our taxes going to the nations wealthiest individuals.
Suggest spending this on Social care and i get accused of wanting some sort of socialist utopia..... :(

When greed is engrained in society, accepted as that's what happens and big corporations don't pay tax and wealthy individuals hide their assets abroad and don't pay tax, is it a wonder that little people are greedy and don't want to pay higher taxes and want to keep "their" inheritance?

Have you noticed the many threads on here being totally accepting of tax avoidance? So there you go. Greed.

Cutting Corp tax and increasing IHT thresholds is not about greed, its about favouring your pals in the 'city over the rights and aspirations of us lot.
We ll all be old one day and whether you ve a house or not, if there aren't the homes or staff, its us that will be screwed.

It's not just about greed though. It astonishes me that anyone would want protect their inheritance, ie someone else's money, at the expense of the owner of that money being cared for properly. That doesn't just stop at greed, it moves on to callousness.

Bhe problem *jas, is if the uk operates a punitive corporate tax regime corporations will relocate from the UK. That will benefit nobody. No corporation tax, no personal tax and a bigger benefit bill due to employment. Everyone has to play their part in this. An extra penny for education, for Health, for social care.

My grandmother had funded care from 1994-99. It should still be available for complex cases. At the same time DH's grandparents were v elderly. Because gran met a clinical bar she got meals on wheels, and a daily carer - funded (diabetes and RA). Grandad didn't qualify for meals on wheels and bought his own ready meals.

When gran died it was accepted grandad would never go into a home. He was as bright as a button but the body at 90 was deteriorating. He gave up his part-time job at 90 too. His family, who lived all ovef the uk set up a rota for twice weekly visits, shopping, cleaning and washing. Where possible our elderly should be looked after by family. Sometimes that's not possible.

And I should have said a penny more for MH. There is none or barely for young people either. When our dd was ill we had to fully fund her care. She got better because we could.

Society is failing. We have so much legislation but what is it's point when the moral compass has disappeared to be replaced with entitlement.

I agree with you. My Nan and Pop worked hard all their lives and went without luxuries to be able to leave a little each to their 5 children when they left this world. No one asked for it, in fact they were encouraged to enjoy their money themselves, but they wanted to leave it behind for their family. Unfortunately both became ill with dementia and the house and savings were no more.

It's not the lack of inheritance that hurts, it's the thought that their lifestyle could have been so much better, had they just enjoyed the money. If they had contracted other illnesses that did not require such care, their sacrifice would at least have been for the purpose they made it.

I wish they had enjoyed more travel and luxuries together.

OhTheRoses - nobody is talking of punitive corporation tax. Just decency and fairness rather than underhandedness and tax dodging. The kind of thing you expect from regular taxpayers. Greed and entitlement and loss of moral compass starts with the current government. It's the only thing that trickles down.

Pug, even better if they hadn't got any illness rather than something else just to get their money's worth. As an aside, difficult to travel, spend and leave an inheritance when you have five children.

There are many illnesses where it is possible to care for elderly relatives at home but not dementia, in the early stages maybe, but even without the aggression, violence and sleep disturbances it can severely impact on the mental health of the carer.

OhThe Roses

We ve already the lowest Corp tax rates of the G7, next years £5 billion cut will take us to rates lower still.
Ours is currently 19% set to drop to 17%... the USA is now 21% !!! but because of state taxes, that gives them a nominal rate of 25%.

Dont see the collapse of Silicon Valley or it relocating to the UK, and we are still miles lower than Germany or Japan.

There is no reason to raise IHT threshold at this moment in time at all @ £2 billion year on year.

There is little evidence that low rates are the sole reason companies relocate or stay in a country, access to skilled work force, facilities eco stability etc are a bigger draw.

You need to have a little more independent thought.

Perhaps we need to encourage via lower corporation tax because workers here have so many legislated rights. We hear only about a tiny proportion of scandals and business rates are literally killing high streets

OhTheRoses - I think I pity you if your makeup is such you think workers have too many rights.

Perhaps we need to encourage via lower corporation tax because workers here have so many legislated rights.

Do tell us about all these rights, particularly in the first two years of employment.

Ffs.

ladywithlapdog nobody lives forever - failing health and death happen to us all. Yes, I hope to God that dementia doesn't happen to me and I wish it hadn't happened to them. It is possibly my greatest health fear - more for the impact on my children and loved ones than my own loss of dignity.

Yes I wish they had got their money's worth! They worked extremely hard well past retirement age in poorly paid manual jobs. I wish the money they had saved had afforded them a few little luxuries in life. They knew nothing of their care home existence and for this, at least, I am glad.

ladywithlapdog I think you misinterpreted my post entirely. The wish of their adult children was for them to spend their money on themselves - not leave any inheritance. Unfortunately, as seems to be the case with many of their generation, their aim in life was to provide for their children and leave behind a small "nest egg" for them all. Sadly - due entirely to dementia - it was spent on mediocre care in a mediocre care home, which they were thankfully oblivious of. It was not possible for either of them to be cared for at home or by family.

In life, they had a single trip to Hastings each year in a caravan, which was their only luxury. I wish the tens of thousands that went on care had actually enabled them to see some of the world, or eat a fancy meal in a restaurant once in a while.

A different illness would at the very least have given them their wish of leaving their hard earned money behind for their family.

I can understand what you are saying Pugswall.

Though i think home ownership (generally) is nowadays more to avoid living on a sink estate with anti-social neighbours somewhere with little choice about where you can move to or the alternative of being 'moved on' constantly by private landlords? Rather than as a means to pay for any possible future care fees?

OhtheRoses, business rates can be discounted by the loacal Council. Our local Council halves the business rate for businesses which only have one outlet, for instance. In some cases, they have waived the business rates altogether. We have many independent shops in our High Street as a result.

It is actually corporates which are killing our high streets. We fought off Tesco - it went to adjudication, but we kicked them out. They already had a largish shop further on, just not in the high street.

Weatherspoons are killing off the other pubs though, which are all independents (and much nicer); Costa has made a volley but seems to have stalled with one small outlet. We do have quite a few coffee shops, all independents.

Basically, I disagree that corporations should be encouraged. Councils should help small local businesses more by cutting their rates and lowering parking charges.

Hijack over. Sorry.

Pugs, apologies, I think I did get that wrong.

Just a short note on the issue of doctors keeping elderly demented people alive with antibiotics - this is absolutely not always the case. In my line of work, I have a real battle if I ever suggest to the family member of a patient with dementia that I would recommend not giving the fifth course of antibiotics that admission. And this is before any attempted conversations around avoiding further admissions to hospital / not artificially feeding or hydrating someone / DNACPR or escalation planning.

Often the problem quite frankly is not the medical staff but the expectations of the relatives and loved ones of keeping people alive at all cost and in any circumstances.

@maiidment

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Is a care home strictly health care? I don’t think so. Health issues may contribute so someone needing to live in a care home, but that doesn’t mean it’s purely a healthcare issue. Your mum needs that money now to ensure her safety and comfort. You can only inherit what she doesn’t need in life.

There’s only so much money for all the needs the government has to meet. It simply can’t be a priority to protect your inheritance.