Deprivation of assets: private school fees

[Grasshopper7]

My father has recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. He's fine on his own at the moment but will obviously need care moving forward. He has approximately £50k in savings and owns his flat. I am confused about what the rules in terms of how much he is allowed to gift us before he gets down to the £23k threshold.
Specifically he wants to ( this has always been his intention) contribute to DC private school fees.
Is a gift of something like £3k each year likely to be considered deprivation of assets?

Also would paying the fees directly to the school rather than to us make any difference?

Everyone can give 'lifetime gifts' of £3000 per year outside of IHT

Private school fees can be tens of thousands a year. If he has 50k in assets that are not his house he is presumably not planning on contributing much (or on selling and downsizing).

A rough guide is here but this area is complicated.

www.independentage.org/get-advice/health-and-care/paying-for-care/giving-away-assets-to-pay-for-care#:~:text=If%20the%20council%20decide%20you,notional%20capital%20or%20notional%20income.

The OP is asking about deprivation of assets fie assessing liability for care costs. Thats different to IHT.

He would ideally like to pay for a term's worth of fees which is about £7k. However if a lower amount is all that is possible then anything would help. It does seem to be a very complicated area

Reading that article I would say that yes we know that he will need to pay for care in the future but that avoiding care costs is not the primary motivation for the monies being gifted

I’m not sure you can give any meaningful amount away once you have a diagnosis as it’s all determined on what you could reasonably expect to need.

@Spacecrispsnack
Yes I'm starting to suspect this is the case. It would be good to have a figure which is considered acceptable ( like the £3000 for inheritance tax purposes) so he can at least gift that.

Just check that he still has capacity to deal with financial affairs. It maybe too late if he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and no one has LPA.

You'd be better off setting up him making a regular contribution.

Again, it's easier to show it wasn't done with deprivation in mind if this starts at the same time as the child(ren) start a new school.

Otherwise it does look a bit like deprivation but this is not my field.

Was he already helping prior to his diagnosis?

If not I think the sudden change post diagnosis would be a flag

Wouldn't it be better for you to keep the money to buy in extra care and comforts. It may mean he has more options.

He was not paying prior to diagnosis but has always been his intention and something that has been discussed. I have LPA but he has capacity at the moment and this is definitely something he wants to do

DC is starting secondary in September which is when the payment would start

This quote from the article above seems key, if he wasn't already contributing I would tread carefully as the timing certainly feels "off"

" There could be valid reasons for doing any of these things. The council must consider the timing and motivation of your actions. If they decide that you knew you would need care, and you were trying to avoid paying towards it, they may see this as deprivation of assets. "

Was she in a private primary or state primary?

I find the lack of clarify very frustrating. This is something he's always intended to do and it seems like that's been taken away from him

State primary. Plan has always been for private secondary with grandparent support to pay the fees

Based on my experience with a relative I would far rather he kept the money and had more options for care for as long as possible.

Presumably if she has a place at private school then you planned to find it yourselves as help from relatives is never guaranteed? (I am not sure I could ask a parent with only £50k in savings to help fund private school)

But he's not exactly drowning in money, it's the kind thing I would expect a fat wealthier parent might decide to do, but not to spend the last of their savings on?

He's a very frugal person and refuses to spend money on himself. It's something he always wanted to do. Yes we can afford the fees ourselves but it's going to be very hard explaining to him that he can't contribute

You will just have to try to explain even without his diagnosis 50k is nothing he is going to need that money in the future

£3k each to several family members, or in total?

The reason it is unclear is because this is not a case of government regulations, like with inheritance tax. But has been built up from law cases that councils/elderly people have brought over who pays the fees.

So the "rules" are unclear because it depends on a number of factors and you can never be entirely sure how a court will rule.

Bluntly he isn't wealthy enough to help and is likely to need that money. With a recent Alzheimer's diagnosis I personally would not risk doing this. I presume you are able to pay school fees without his contributions.

Total per tax year.

To be clear he owns a property. Obviously this will be sold and will be able to fund several years of care. The £50k is on top of this