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.

Well thats a stupid thing to Do! Op is just asking the question, hasn't done anything yet. Plus nothing OP has suggested is illegal - so not fraud.

You are quite right. People are quick to judge when it doesn't effect them. They would do the same.

If I were you I'd get professional legal advice - have a meeting with a solicitor and your MIL to ensure everything is above board. But essentially yes, if the inheritance goes to you and not your wife this can't be made to be used for her fees.

I work to enjoy my life in the here and now, loads of expensive hobbies, nice house, nice car, amazing holidays.

If that means I have to pay for my own care in later life so be it.

Either way, I will leave this earth with nothing but will have had a much better journey on the way.

Also look into the cap that the government were going to introduce. It may mean you don’t lose the whole lot to her care costs.

Labour have reversed plans for this cap unfortunately.

@Hateam can I PM you please?

Hahaha this is crazy. As someone who works for Adult Social Care they will have a great laugh at this before doing absolutely nothing 🤣🤣🤣

What a ridiculous, spiteful and over the top thing to do. Better hope there's no such thing as karma, eh?

Wow you lot are nasty!
And this is also not fraud. Financial planning is a wise thing to do particularly when considering financial planning involving passing on wealth to disabled family members.

His wife is in a home at a lot younger age than most of us would want to be.
It's common practice for families with disabled family members to put funds in trust and for a monthly amount to be paid to them.

This is not the OP's decision tho. This is for his MiL to take advice from a solicitor and to decide what she wants to do with any £££ she has left after her own care is paid for. Particularly if she would like her wealth to benefit any grandchildren.

And that is perfectly legal and as it should be.

1. its not YOUR money.
2. if I were in your position I would be very relieved that I had enough savings to pay for a lovely care home for my spouse
3. expecting every other council tax payer in your area to fund your wife’s care whilst you swan off with her inheritance is a shitty thing to do
4. there are 2 vulnerable women in this situation and you want to shaft them both. Well done!

Because the welfare state was never funded to do this. Like state pensions it was funded on the premise that most people would die long before they needed social care. I believe the age for working men was averaged out at 60. Clearly people are living longer, and are therefore more prey to the illnesses of old age like cancer , osteoporosis, heart disease, strokes, various dementias. We can just about cope with funding these medical needs, but social care needs for an increasingly elderly population is outside the scope of the current system unless the way it is paid for is re organised. I believe in some countries an extra layer of income tax is both levied and ringfenced to cover social care needs.

Until then people with funds available will be expected to pay for their social care.

I agree. It does depend though whether the DMIL is on agreement and has capacity.

It's your MIL's money and it's up to her to choose what happens with it. If she wants to leave it to her daughter, with the understanding that it will contribute to funding her daughter's care, that's her right. If she wants to leave all to an animal charity, that's her right too. Nobody else should be interfering with her choice.

If your MIL is the one who is looking for ways to avoid the money contributing to care costs, then she needs to seek professional financial advice. If she wants to ensure some goes to grandchildren, for example, she could leave it directly to them. Although with care costs as they are, there may not be much left in the inheritance pot.

As an aside, you might want to ask for this thread to be deleted or removed after a short time. There probably aren't that many people in Essex who have their MIL and wife in this situation, so you may be fairly easily identified, and I suspect the council wouldn't be thrilled at the attempt to get out of financial contributions to care.

If she is able to visit nice restaurants, London shows and theatres plus have day trips, then why is she in a home? Do you not have enough of your own money to take her out?

It's like Disney Dad, but the Husband Edition.

If your MIL chooses to leave her money in a way which avoids it paying towards your wife's care, that is up to her. She needs to research the options, without any pressure from other parties. If I was MIL I'd want it to go towards my daughter's care, but it's her choice.

That supposes that she has any money left by the time of her death, given she is in a care home herself and is presumably paying her own fees if she has a large amount sitting around to leave as an inheritance.

My mother used all her money for care fees. I was completely happy about that as (a) it's her money and (b) it meant I could buy the best care for her.

No, he wants to pocket the money for himself. Otherwise he would have asked - ‘when my wife receives her inheritance is there a way of placing it into some sort of trust so that her care home fees will be covered’

The final £26k (I think) isn't used, so that would pay for some lovely meals out and theatre trips.

Do you have any children OP? Maybe your MIL would like her money to skip a generation to support them.

I am an Essex CC council tax payer including the element for adult social care. I understand your frustration. My understanding was it was only personal care that should be self funded and if medical care is required that is funded centrally?

I’m pretty much reconciled to paying for my care as my parents did before me. I think you’re grasping and greedy. Why should taxpayers pay when the person needing care can afford to pay for it?

Do you think care homes are like prisons? I'm retired but worked for a company that ran care homes, our residents were out for meals, to shows and even (shock horror) on foreign holidays. Some only needed one carer, others would need two or three but they were still entitled to a life. One person can't give the 24/7 care that may be needed but it doesn't mean there shouldn't be any fun in life.

None of us know the OPs individual circumstances so I don’t think it’s fair to judge him for asking a question.

For all we know, he’s gone from a 2 income household to a 1 income household after his wife fell ill and now he’s got a massive mortgage to cover on a reduced income. Or maybe they have kids or adult children he needs to support.

I mean, maybe he just doesn’t want to pay, but I don’t think it should be assumed. Many people have nuanced and complex financial issues.

If on the off chance this isn’t a troll post ( and people are actually saying this is ok) do you have POA over your wife’s finances?

Assuming your MIL still has capacity and she wants to avoid the money being used for care fees then she should talk to a lawyer about whether there's a way some money for her daughter could be reserved in a trust or similar for specific purposes. I don't know the answer but she'd need specific legal advice for this.

Honestly though, if your wife is going to be dependent on care long term using the money to fund it seems right. It doesn't necessarily have to be the setup you currently have, but that money should be used to give your wife the best quality of life possible, sure that can include day trips etc but making the day to day bit as good as it can be is what will make the biggest difference to her.

The OP would have got more sympathetic responses if they had posted "my wife is in a care home due to a degenerative illness that affects her abilty to care for herself. She may be due a large inheritance from her mother, given my wife may lack capacity in the future how can we best arrange things to ensure this gives her an income to meet her needs in the future."

But instead they posted bullshit about not wanting the council to get their hands on it. Which got people's backs up as the money councils have is money from all of us.