It depends.
spending your INCOME on stuff you do in your retirement is entirely up to you. Frazzle it on gambling, drinking and fast cars if you like. It is indeed your money .
But when you start to talk about non income assets that it gets more dodgy. Savings, investments, chatels, pension pots, property. And what is being looked at is deliberate changes in behaviour to avoid care cost. They have to show there was an element of deliberation to avoid care fees
Here is a quote from care uk help page - so here it talks about gambling (🤣I’m not a gambler, just an example) , but I think they’d struggle if you’d always gambled and weren’t doing so recklessly. I think they’d also be hard pushed to reclaim gambling losses anyway!
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Deprivation of assets means you’ve deliberately tried to get rid of your assets to avoid charges or reduce the amount you would have to pay for your care. There are various ways you might do this, including:
- making a lump-sum payment to someone else, possibly as a gift
- extravagant spending that is out of character
- extravagant living, such as gambling
- transferring the title deeds of your property to someone else
- putting your assets into a trust that can’t be revoked
- buying an investment bond with life insurance
- buying expensive items so they would be disregarded as personal possessions
- selling an asset for less than its true value
- giving away or selling the right to an income from a workplace pension.
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.”
and “When they carry out the financial assessment, the council will ask about things you used to own, as well as what you currently own. There’s no time limit on how far back the council can look at your financial affairs to see if there has been deprivation of assets. You may have to provide evidence to prove to the council that you no longer have an asset.
There are many reasons why you might have given something away. The council must consider each case individually. They’ll look at:
- why and when you disposed of your assets
- whether you could have known that you would need care and support at the time
- whether you expected that you'd have to pay towards your care costs
- whether avoiding care costs was a significant motivation for disposing of your assets.
If the council decide you’ve deliberately deprived yourself of an asset to avoid paying care costs, they could treat you as if you still had it. They may include its full value in your financial assessment and charge you accordingly. This is called notional capital or notional income.
If you no longer have the asset, you could find that you’re expected to pay more towards your care than you can afford.
If you transferred the asset to someone else to avoid the charge, that person may be responsible for paying the council. They may have to pay the difference between what the council would have charged if you still had the asset and what they did charge.”