Inheritance and care home fees

[Hateam]

Hello!

My mother-in-law is in a care home.

My wife, her daughter, is also in a care home for medical - non age related- issues. My council are paying for my wife's care as we have under £24500 in savings.

When my MIL dies (she's 94) my wife will inherit about £180,000.

We don't want this money going to Essex CC.

Is there anything we can?

Could my MIL's will be changed to remove my wife and replace her with me? She is still of sound mind.

Could the money go into an account in my sole name?

I am aware of the concept of deprivation of assets.

No advice OP but I wanted to say it’s very sad you and your wife are in this position and I wish you all the best.

£180k is a lot of money just to take someone out and about lol! £180k is a luxury and struggle to see how it relates to your dad, different situation. No one would choose to be in a home or be disabled and OP doesn’t state he’s miserable? You seem very angry, I’d suggest some counselling.

To start with, Scotland is part of the UK - they are not two different entities.

And residential care is most definitely not free in Scotland - some limited costs are met by the public purse, but my elderly DF with advanced Alzheimers is paying over £5,000 per month for his nursing home.

What a devastating situation for you and your wife to be in. I understand why you would pose a question like this (and I'm shocked at the poster who has sent this thread to the council, that has to be a Mumsnet first!) it seems grossly unfair that you're dealt this hand in life and the woman you love is so unwell. As it stands the system is the system and, unless you find a good financial advisor to support you through this, that money will need to be spent on your wife's care on your mother in law's passing.

My father is in a nursing home, paying £1,800 a week.
I am only able to work part-time, earning about £8,000 a year. I was his unpaid carer for five years before he went to the home.
Universal credit is being stopped at the end of this year.
When my father's cash runs out, I will be required to sell his bungalow. Then, when the proceeds from that is eventually is down to £25,000, the local authority will step in and pay.
It hurts like hell, but that's life sometimes.
The new government have already said they won't cap how much people should pay.

Agree,

And they do.

I would hate to give the council money. Unless, err, they were looking after my loved one

So who do you think should pay for your wife's care if and when she inherits around 180k @Hateam? Presumably someone other than yourself? The working tax payer? Or do you support the government increasing the deficit more and more until the currency collapses, impacting everyone? No wonder the country is on its knees when people don't want to take any personal responsibility.
Why is it that you think it is giving money to the county council? Your wife, very sadly, needs care. You would be paying for the service she is receiving, not donating money to the council. What an odd way to think of things.

There seem to be several people on this thread who are confusing medical care, which is funded at present. I dare say the OP's wife has received and continues to receive a great deal of medical care.
Social care, however, is different. At present, the wife is also receiving all of this at tax payer expense because the couple have apparently not managed to accumulate any significant savings. If she does inherit money, she needs to use this to pay for the services received, which are considerable if she needs 24 hour care.

No, your wife’s inheritance will be classed as her savings.

However, if your wife, due to medical needs is receiving ‘continuing NHS care’ then it’s not affected.

what do you mean Universal credit is stopping at the end of this year?

The NHS will contribute up to £220 a week for care homes in certain cases.

No money is being transferred anywhere until MIL dies
Nobody is entitled to know the contents of that will until the person dies. Not the beneficiaries. Not the council. It matters not one jot until the person dies.
If that person wants to make changes to the will at any time they can do so assuming they are of sound mind etc.
No one can be accused of deprivation of assets because those assets belong to the MIL until she dies.

& do you know what national is led care homes were like? I do my mom ran one when she took over the smell of wee greeted you at the front door. The staff did the best they could with little resources. The place when she took over was filthy. I was only 12yrs old remember an old lady that had got cancer of the nose she just had a dressing over the top as there was just a hole in her face. As for councils not making a profit most of them are near bankrupt, they need to make a profit to keep going.

What an awful shameful post this is.

What I don't understand is that even if this is possible, what will you spend it on that will benefit your wife?

Care benefits your wife.

Can she realistically go on a 5* holiday to the Maldives? Live at a home she owns?

OP - this thread is very identifying. Ask for it to be pulled before some gobshite sends it to ECC.

The new Labour govt have kicked this particular can of worms into the long grass - again.

i have much sympathy for the OP and for anyone who is seeing their carefully accumulated family assets handed over to the care home chains. the only winners in the current system are the businesses who operate the homes.

It’s the unfairness of it that really grates: there is no way to predict who will need care and who will not. All social care should be provided by the state and funded from taxes, just as medical care is currently. A tax on inheritance is the obvious way to do it. This means that everyone contributes, and the care is there for everyone who needs it - rich or poor. Needing nursing or residential care isn’t a lifestyle choice! It’s not something people should have to save up for (unless they want to go private) any more than they should have to save up in case they need cancer treatment or a knee replacement!

the current system lets the rich off the hook (because they can afford to put arrangements in place to secure their assets), and it leaves the middle earners - whose family home might be their only big asset - propping up the whole system. And again, the only beneficiaries are the care home chains.

The money won’t be going to the council, it will be going to the care home to pay for her care.

OP - in answer to you original q’s. If your MIL wants to and has capacity she can change her will and if she makes you the sole heir you can do what you want with the money including putting it in a bank account in your sole name. I’m not sure whether the council take joint assets into account in their assessment in the case of married couples, but if they dont you are home free as it won’t be and never was your wife’s money. This is what you need to establish. I suggest you start asking questions about how your wife’s care will be funded in the long term to establish the actual facts

If your wife is under retirement age the NHS may pay for care. To those who say she should pay, would they pay for a hospital stay, if it took many months to recover or repeated hospital visits and stays over many years due to a serious illness or disability? If they had the money to pay. Is this means testing the NHS?

www.nhs.uk/conditions/social-care-and-support-guide/money-work-and-benefits/nhs-continuing-healthcare/

Unless you can sue the hospital for negligence, if it applies, then yes she needs to pay, if she inherits her mum’s money.
what if she passes away before mum?
Assuming you work, why are you not spending your money on your wife?

While the OP's tone in his first post grates, and raises suspicions (could he just depart with the money once he's got it, or encourage bad care for his wife so she dies and also, he gets the money) Councils are generally pretty corrupt when it comes to adult social care - Essex may not be great, Surrey certainly isn't and self-funders in effect are subsidising Council-funded residents to the tune of several hundred pounds a week. Self-funders don't get the care they need, rather the care they're going to get - and anyone who complains will be branded a trouble-maker; they can be barred from the home, with the agreement and back-up of the corrupt adult safeguarding team.

On top of which, there is a high population of the elderly in the South-east and there are allegations of euthanasia, carried out via deliberate dehydration in care homes, general wear and tear directed against the autistic who aren't encouraged to live beyond 60 or so, and flat-out fatal injections if none of that works. You are entering a very toxic arena, though the chandeliers of many a care home may look nice.

Presumably her mother would think that it would in fact be a very good use of her money to fund her daughter's care after her own death, and would be happy for the money she leaves her to ensure she is cared for?

Here, you dropped something