If a parent goes into a care home will the LA come for some of the money from the sale of their house?

[Thebluespoon]

Once the remaining partner (who is currently living in the house) dies?

I am not sure if I should have placed this thread in the Money matters section but thought there may be some people on here who have gone through this.

I am a bit confused following a meeting with my parents finanical advisor.

Mum has Alzheimer;'s, it's been 7 years since her diagnosis. She lives at home with my dad and between my dad, my sister and myself we have been helping to look after her. However, following an awful fall in June and subsequent hospital stay mum's dementia has progressed rapidly and she is now double incontinent and can only walk aided and even that is tricky. We now have private carers who come in 3 times a day.

We are hoping to keep mum at home for as long as possible but we are aware we are on borrowed time and there will come a point when the home carers are not enough and we will not be able to cope, at this point we will have no choice but to look into care homes.

Mum and dad have investments. Because of mum's recent change in circumstances Dad and I had a meeting with his financial advisor yesterday. My parents investments were changed after mum's diagnosis in 2018 and most of them are now in dad's name (all done under the financial advisor's advice). There is a fairly good chunk under mum's name but this wouldn't last too long if mum went into a care home tbh.

The financial advisor said as soon as mum's investments fall to below the £23,250 threshold the LA will step in and pay (obviously that will be after a full assessment).

Mum and dad own their own home and I know the LA can not force any sale of the house whilst dad is alive and resisding there but I was under the belief that if dad were to die or mum ran up a care bill which exceeded the amount she has in investments then the LA can take the remainding figure from the sale of the house (after dad passes away or if he were to die whilst mum is still in care). The financial advisor says this would not happen.

I am a bit confused as I hear constant stories of people in care homes having to sell their homes to pay for the fees or a large chunk taken out from the sale of a house once the remaining partner passes away and leaves the house empty.

Does anyone have any experience of this sort of issue?

Should also add that my dad's side of things are all in trusts, this was set up by their solicitor.

That would be incredibly unusual. Most people don’t use a financial advisor for these things though, the LA do their own financial assessment so you might find what he tells you differs from what will actually happen.

If a couple are tenants in common rather than joint tenants, each person can leave their half to their child or whoever they want; the recipient can't benefit from it in any way while the other parent is still alive, but the local authority can't touch it for care fees.

But you can’t avoid care home fees in favour of an inheritance?

How is this going to be paid for and for how long can it be afforded? Is a hugely important question to ask when thinking and planning long term care, especially residential care.

This is something my DB and I have worried about and continue to worry about for our DM. The question of what happens when the money runs out is a difficult one.

Will the LA step in and pay so that the person can stay where they are settled? Or will the family be expected to top up fees? This could easily be £££s per week. Or will they be expected to move their relative to somewhere cheaper and less suitable?

I will be brutal and say that I am hoping DM dies before we get to that point. And before anyone suggests it, we won't be inheriting whatever is left of DM's estate.

In France relatives are expected to pay for parents care home fees when their own funds are depleted -which does make sense, rather than relying on taxpayer.

You can if a life interest in possession trust is set up at the same time as the couple being made tenants in common, but before any diagnosis is made. Reading between the lines, it seems that this type of trust was created in this situation that OP outlines. I think the FA and solicitor that OP's father has used have been a bit crap because if I'm correct about this trust being used it was very silly for it to have been created after OP's mother was diagnosed with dementia. LA's know all the tricks people use to get out of paying care home fees and can go through medical records, trust creation records, bank statements and land registry information.

In what way does that make sense? In my area the cheapest care home is around £1000/week and we are not in an expensive area. There is no way my family could afford to pay that.

It’s £1,750 per week pretty much across the board here, extra if nursing care is needed. The PP doesn’t have a clue what she’s talking about. Unfortunately she’s chosen to make that clear by making unpleasant posts on this thread

That's no longer the case. There's no time frame for assessing assets.

Ok, thank you for that info.

I'm not quite sure by what you mean by "in favour of an inheritance". If a person has assets above the £20k or £25k or whatever it is, the local authority won't fund care for them. Suppose Mr Smith dies without ever having been in a home and he and Mrs Smith are tenants in common. Mr S can leave his half of the house to their child (or whoever). Then when Mrs S dies that half becomes theirs. But if the widowed Mrs S becomes in need of residential care and she's above the asset threshold, it won't be funded. So the house would be sold and her half of the cash would go on the fees. But they couldn't touch the other half.

Mrs Smith having to draw on her half can't be avoided. Nobody can just opt out of paying for care, if they have the assets, on the grounds that they want to leave the assets to their kids (or whoever). But things can be arranged so that the assets of husband and wife are separate and it's only the assets of the person needing care that will be taken into account.

But things can be arranged so that the assets of husband and wife are separate and it's only the assets of the person needing care that will be taken into account.

Sure, but only if the arrangements were made before there was a reasonable expectation of perhaps needing care in the future.

I must have completely misunderstood the comment of yours I was replying to.

🤣

What a bore. Fact is taxpayers pay for care of someone who avoided paying. Facts are important.

My DM was similar. She went on to 97, the last years with advanced Alzh., but no other health issues. Her very good dementia-only care home was well able to manage her care.

I’m surprised the unpleasant posters on here are happy that you get better care homes if you have more money, usually people think this is terrible and everyone should get the same regardless of ability to pay.

I don’t think anyone saw this coming, particularly 80 year olds, and I imagine they would’ve lived their lives very differently if they knew that all their assets would be sold to fund care until they passed. I certainly would think it would’ve been more holidays and less investments anyway whilst they could’ve enjoyed it.

Op find a care home that suits your mum and let go. If your dad got dodgy advice let the la and the solicitor fight it out. Best of luck.

Yes, we looked on the fact of being able to self-fund, for both FiL and my DM, as something of a ‘luxury’. It meant we could choose the time and place both times, and were not dependent on the tender mercies of permanently overstretched SS, who we had never needed to involve at all.