AIBU to try and prevent care home fees? Advice appreciated

[Watermelonsuns]

So my parents are elderly, both have health issues but managing well at home. My mum in particular would struggle if something happened to my dad. Recently a friend's parent had to go into a care home and as the parent owned their own house and savings they are self funding and the fees are crazy.
AIBU to try and find a way to protect my parent's property and savings in order its not all gone in care home fees in the last years?
Someone has suggested moving their property into my name but surely that would be an obvious way to avoid fees and would look dodgy? Is there another loop hole im missing? Aby advice from someone working in this area would be appreciated thanks

My granny was in an old style 'old people's home' (ie before they were all privatised in NI) and had to share a room with a stranger, who used a commode (badly), there were no partitions or anything in the room. I've also seen black and white footage of old people in dormitory type accommodation dating back to the 60s and 70s, sex segregated obviously. All pretty grim.

But this is precisely my point though. My relative was assessed as needing one to one. Not one of the care homes in our area had the facility even those costing upwards of 1600 a week. They were either full or if not full they couldn't support the need.I'm in the north West. There wasn't even an option to pay more for one to one.
One of my parents was in a care home under CHC for end of life. When the need to move into care happened, the space that was available was in a home that ranks highly in our area. All the things you mention en suites , on site hairdresser, entertainment, craft , activities. There was a range of residents in there, CHC, council top up, self funders.
The care homes in my area are full to bursting with waiting lists.

Which is why all the rooms will be the same for whoever moves in. Regardless of funding. We don’t design larger rooms for those who pay, that would be a disgrace. Everyone gets the same.

As you move South the % of people who self fund increases. Your area is the worst standing at 27% unfortunately.
Hence the massive fees for self funders.
That north/ south divide could be made fairer with a centralised system.

Yes all of this, and much higher staff turnover because they pay less well and it's a less satisfying environment to work in.

It’s also worth noting only 1.3% of care homes are all self funded.
They are extremely rare and not therefore reflective of what is available to the many

Some charities run care homes. I'm not talking about care homes that are run as charities, I'm assuming that's a tax thing (no evidence though)

DD works in one and she gets paid more than minimum wage and the fees are less.

The reason people are saying deprivation of assets are 7 years, that's the cut off for probate and it's a nice cut off for other things

Same with MIL before Christmas. We were told don't expect her to survive. She's back in her care home. Tbh her dementia has taken a dive. But she's happy. She loves her friends and staff.

I worked during the school holidays as a domestic in Shenley mental home.
The same set up
All dormitories
Very depressing.
Thank goodness those days are gone.

I would think more in London and the South East. They are usually small.

Watermelonsuns
Are you in Scotland or England OP ?
If Scotland you might face an easier scenario

https://wills.services/guides/how-to-protect-my-property-against-care-home-fees

Definitely. The more affluent the area the more there will be. It’s common sense really.

Or more precisely, more "property-rich".

In many places in London and the SE elderly people may be living in million pound properties. Not because they ever earned huge amounts or have large pensions, but because the house they bought in the 60s/70s is worth an awful lot.

I recently looked up the value of my parents first home, a two up two down in Teddington. Nothing special then, but worth an awful lot now.

Chart from the ifc on spending increases in Social care for all age groups

With the exception of a 10% reduction in the number of 65 plus recipients everything else has increased in terms of numbers and costs.

It’s all very worrying for the future.

That's really helpful, thankyou .

what that website doesn't mention is that putting homes into a trust STILL has to be done well before the need for care can be foreseen. otherwise the deliberate deprivation rules still apply and the person will still be assessed as though the property was not in a trust.

I'd have though they were very comparable. Incidence increases with age, majority of over 80 year old men have prostate cancer , so surely by your reckoning it's a natural consequence of old age and all men should be saving to cover their own costs.

I'me leaving the argument now, my dad died this morning.

The seven year rule doesn’t apply to deprivation of assets for care fees though. The LA can investigate back as far as they want. My mum was asked about the sale of her home in 2004 and they wanted proof of the percentage ownership, which we had to provide via original sales records from when we sold our respective properties and bought jointly.

So sorry about your dad xx

The more people find a way round the fees, the more unsustainable the system becomes because of the burden on Local Authorities. The uncomfortable public conversation has to come soon.

This. The care home our relative is in charges £1000 a month more to self funders than to LA residents, for exactly the same facilities. They explain this away as the LA purchasing power securing a lower price, but in reality £12000 a year is effectively being contributed by each self funder to top up LA residents. So after five years each self funding resident will have paid £60,000 towards other people’s care. From their own funding sources. It’s legalised theft.

Yep, it’s also excluded if a direct relative of the person going into care is still resident in the house and they are either disabled or over 60.

Agree and that chart I posted on this page shows the increase in spending pp plus a reduction of 10% in usage for pensioners.
We have no idea but I do wonder if that’s the self funders not using the system anymore as it’s just too expensive and they don’t want to use their money to subsidise others.

The increase in the lower age groups aswell, I hope, pushes Governments to look at alternative funding options

👏👏👏👏

well said!