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.

Many countries have proper care insurance which you pay into, which makes care costs manageable without draining people of all their assets. Why work and save if it will only be swallowed up by care. All this talk of 'taxpayers' and 'fraud' is absolute bollocks. The people in care ARE also taxpayers who have paid into the system for years themselves. Their house and assets have already been subject to income tax! Why should they not be able to leave money to their children, since that money has already been taxed (sometimes more than once if their taxed salary was used to e.g. pay for renovations which carried VAT etc). I hope that the new government will finally sort out a care insurance system. You shouldn't be punished for working, paying into the system, and saving.

YES of course but fund it yourself - rather than diverting someone else's care funds to your relative's little treats.

@Hateam posting this in AIBU was always going to result in a bun fight. For some reason this topic is triggering everyone’s moral outrage (AIBU usually does regardless of topic) but in part because the govt has brainwashed us into accepting self funding.

In Canada the govt pays (sort of) in that the govt will place you in a care home but take 80% of your income to cover part costs. This funding does allow you to keep your assets, which are untouched.

If it was council running the care homes, maybe there’s more of a moral argument but so many are private, run for profit, often owned by private equity funds, sadly all too often with substandard care. My MILs very hard earned savings are now all going on care. I sympathise.

I would understand if your wife has children, but she does not. So why would MIL want to leave the inheritance to you instead of her own daughters care?

Is this 94 year old going to get coerced? Does she have capacity?

If you do not get the money will you abandon your wife? Or you might abandon her once you get it anyway. No offence but I cannot see you not getting yourself a gf
at some point.

Does MIL have other children?
Because if mil objects to it all going in to care, then maybe she should leave it to her other children and gc.

Social services or the care home should request a CHC assessment from the NHS
There are long waiting lists though and the NHS try not to pay

www.nhs.uk/conditions/social-care-and-support-guide/money-work-and-benefits/nhs-continuing-healthcare/#:~:text=Am%20I%20eligible%20for%20NHS,universal%20or%20specialist%20services%20alone.

Hi
I knew posting here eould draw the comments it has.

However there have been many posts that have been helpful and I have received many private messages giving excellent advice.

The bun fightback been entertaining and I have received excellent help - win, win.

@DrBlackbird I agree that the last governments have made people assume they just have to pay for all of it. Here in Germany you pay all your life into care insurance (comes out of your salary automatically). So yes it does mean a deduction from your salary over a long period, about 300 Eur per month. We also pay around 600 Eur per month health insurance (employer pays half). It ends up meaning that you actually receive only about 60% of your gross salary. However, when you need care, approximately 2/3 is covered, making it fairly manageable and you probably don't need to lose all your assets to cover care. This would not benefit all the private companies and hedge funds who have their claws completely in the UK care market, so the effort to come up with some type of social care insurance here has not been successful. Here's hoping for the Labour government..

If I were the OP's MIL I would be very pleased to find a way to ensure that my money could fund such treats for my disabled daughter.

For someone who's expected to spend over 30 years in residential care an inheritance of £180k will be spent within 3 years with no discernible benefit to them. A lot of money goes a very short distance in such circumstances.

If I was the MIL I'd rather give my child's loving partner the money to spend on improving my child's quality of life than pay for the care that I believe my child should be receiving from the government anyway. And assuming I loved my son in law (as many inlaws do, outside of Mumsnet, I'd rather he had the money himself to enjoy the rest of his life than for the council to get it.

Its a tricky one cos councils are notoriously inefficient. If they ran care homes the costs would likely be double or treble what they are now. The flipside is what we have now, bare bones care and service with private firms trousering the profit.

Love the way everyone has decided that a person whose wife has been incapacitated by brain tumours should pay for 30 years of care for her, whilst they waddle off to get their free hip replacements

Sorry for your situation OP, it’s awful for you

Oh ffs, wind your neck in.

Not only doing it, but also coming on to gleefully announce it.

Dreadful.

’the council’ don’t get all your money. The care home who you owe for the work of caring for your wife, get the money they are owed.

What you are trying to do is rob taxpayers (like me, who will likely never receive an inheritance, have a massive mortgage, massive childcare fees and student loan).

You should be ashamed of yourself.

@Rosscameasdoody I’m a tax payer and yes… because I also pay for subsidised alcohol for my mp at House of Commons plus the house in London that they own. I’d much prefer my taxes pay for a disabled person to be cared for

@StuffCanDoTwoThings he is trying to rob the public purse

Hi @Hateam

I'm glad you are able to bypass the hysterical comments and focus on the helpful ones.

It's a nuanced situation and many people on here haven't grasped that.

It's a horrible situation for you, and as others have said, there are ways around it which are perfectly legal.

Please contact a good financial adviser asap and look into trusts for vulnerable beneficiaries.

Good luck.

He’s not trying to rob the public purse his MIL is paying for her care. How many times do we hear on here that no one should expect to receive an inheritance. In this case no money has yet been left, if it’s never left to the OPs wife it’s never in scope to be used for her care. His MIL may end up leaving no money, she might leave it to charity. There is no law that says we should leave money to our DC to maximise the governments take. People do tax/inheritance planning all the time, this is no different.

I hope you share this disdain with the millions of others in this country who ensure they make their assets work best for them, whether that be sole traders right the way up to the Gary Barlows and Jimmy Carrs. If OP can ger MIL to put money into a trust to save splashing it on his wifes fees then good luck to him!

No, that is not what the OP is talking about at all.

@Dufrise of course they’re all thieves.

I can’t imagine being so entitled that you think struggling taxpayers and councils should fund your wife’s care home fees when there is £180k in her bank account. The bare faced cheek!

Lots of envy in this thread.

Op has had good advice. It sounds like a lot of money, but care home fees are so high it'd be gone quickly. Shes worked, had money from her home, now penalised for planning? Why shouldn't daughter and grand children get some sort of inheritance?

or its just good business ?

Of course no one would want to. But they would

My dad had an insurance policy for care fees (of a sort which no longer exists), and when he went into a care home he sold his house and spent some of that money to buy annuities. Together with his pensions, he was actually covering all of his care costs with no state support (even making a small monthly profit; he outlived the actuarial predictions by many years, so he got all his money back).

Because of that he didn't bother applying for Attendance Allowance, not wanting to be a drain on the state. When I took over as his Court-of-Protection Deputy I was told off for not applying, as I had a duty to act in his financial best interests!!! Isn't OP trying to act in his wife's financial best interests?