Is lifetime trust worth doing?

[welshgirl666]

Is a lifetime trust worth doing to protect house from care fees to ensure children get the inheritence? Very simple, Mum owns the house, fully paid off, worth less than £300,000, only one child and is wanting to do this to protect the inheritance for myself.

I know she has to survive for 7 years after doing it or the council can still use the house to pay for care but are there any other reasons not to do it?

The main reason would be that the council can go back far longer than 7 years.

Most people do not need care.

May I suggest you go and view a council funded care home vs a self funded care home and ask yourself the question which would I want my Mum to live in if she needed care.

No, for the reasons given above. Also, I think you’re mixing up the 7 year survivorship rule for Inheritance Tax with deprivation of assets. There are several tax reasons why this is a really bad idea too.

My mother is in a self funded care home. I had to sell her house and now all the money is gone.
I hope that your mother does not need to go into a care home. To be honest I never in my wildest dreams expected my mum would eventually be living in one but she is.
If this did happen, you would expect the taxpayer to pay for your mother's care when she has the money to fund herself!
I'll be clear, people like you really annoy me.
I think the government really need to start looking into this.
Council run homes and private care homes are poles apart. If it came to it what type of home would you like to see your mother in?

Thanks for all your replies. I wasn't aware that they look more than 7 years back, my Mum said that so I'm glad I learned that.

I don't have any knowledge or experience of care homes except the one my nan was in which was council funded and lovely. I didn't know there was a difference between privately funded and council funded places. I would obviously want my mum in the best place.

I do underatand why you would say people like me annoy you, except it's not me who wants to put this place-it's my mum and its her house/money. And I do kind of see why as its not fair that she works extremely hard all her life then has to pay for her care and lose all the money (same as your family i would think) when people who can't be bothered to work get it all paid for. It is slightly unfair. I didn't know there was a difference in care though so will go back to her and discuss further. This is why I asked - to get peoples honest opinions. Thanks all.

To be honest in my experience there is aassive difference. My father was in a council run home. He had dementia and so did all the other residents. They had them all in the main room with the tv on, 2 carers were in there constantly on their phones, the weekend cook always smelt of alcohol. However council run ones are not all like that.
My mother has no mobility, I'm talking wheelchair, frame,assistance to use the toilet. I sold her house so she has self funded. The home I chose is stunning, over looks the Norfolk Broads, always the same staff and plentiful, various activities, separate dining room, choice of menu for all 3 meals, everyone resident is clean. When my mother went there she was bought by private ambulance even though I had visited when I could as she was in Bedfordshire and had private carers(nightmare, another story) when I met her there at the home she looked at death's door, now she looks so much better, she does have medical stuff going on but who doesn't at 92. I put it down to the care at the home.
I appreciate people have been on welfare so if it happened they would not contribute to care but then you could say why should I pay for food shopping etc as next door are getting money from the welfare system.
I think also a vast amount of people are established in their lives not to need an inheritance.

Your mother may be lucky and not need care.

However, if she does then it is much better to be able to self-fund. That gives you choice not only of the care you receive - either in your own home or in a residential care/nursing home. It also, and many people don't think of this, gives you the choice of when you receive care. This is particularly important when you feel it's time to go into residential care. Being dependent on public funding means sitting at home on your home for long hours at a time in between carers' visits. This can be extremely lonely not to say unpleasant if you can't physically get to the toilet.

If your mother does go down this route, and if there is a reasonable expectation that she might need care in the future - due to frailty or illness - then the local authority can go back years to check for deliberate deprivation of assets - which will mean that she will be treated as if she still has the funds.

Others have already mentioned that 7 year rule is for inheritance tax; you may want to read about rules around deprivation of assets Deprivation of Assets in Social Care | Age UK And as previous poster said, money (property) and ability to self-fund means you have choice. The threshold for residential care is getting higher because councils don't have money and if you are reliant on public funds, social services may determine that the basic needs can be met with 4 carer visits a day, 15 minutes each.