Local Authority

Surely the Local Authority can't take the house as long as your Mother is living there - or are they saying they will want it once she has either been placed in a home or dies?

Tracy

The council can not take the house while your mother is in it.
If your mother outlives your father the house will then become hers and you will get it if it is willed to you.
Is it just physical disability.
I do know of a case where a wife was in a home and the father was not.
The wife was did understand what was going on.
The solicitor visited the home and arranged for the house to be split in to tenants in common ownership and 2 wills were made out each leaving their own halves to the daughter.
The mother passed away before the father and the father never went in to care so the daughter inherited the whole house.
If by any chance the father had pre deceased the mother the council could have only taken the mothers half share.

Frank

Tracy

My parents made out their wills with care fees in mind.
Fortunately my parents never went in to care but in my case the Local Authority would have got nothing.
They did not work for the council.
I did for a short time in Social Services but not in the Older Adults section. The will was made out years before I joined the council.
There was a regulation in which it said you were supposed to act in the best interest of the council at all times and this was pointed to when an employees parents required care and the money was legally in his name.
The council got nowhere in trying to recover the money from him.

Frank

An elderly widow of my acquaintance was persuaded by her family to sign the house over to them to avoid care home fees. Within two years the daughter and son in law had sold the house and left her homeless. Be warned!

MrsJamJam

I know what you say does happen but I just find it amazing that a daughter would make her mother homeless just to get her inheritance early.
When my wife passed away and her mother was still alive we knew my daughters were going to inherit her money but at least we looked after her and kept her in her bungalow.
What my parents did and my in laws was to split their properties in to tenants in common ownership and we got half of the properties when one parent passed away and the other half when both parents passed away.
We were amazed when a distant relative of my mother in law came round about a year before she died wanting my mother in law to will her bungalow to them not realising my daughters owned half of it at that point.
To illustrate how much they had to do with her she thought they were relatives from my side of the family at first.
After she passed away another relative from her side of the family visited wanting her estate but I did not let him in.
We never heard from him again.

Frank

Mrs JamJam - a good point!

bluebell

I agree a parent has to protect their interest.
My mother objected to the possibility of her money possibly going to another family or possibly my fathers care fees.
That is why my parents split the ownership of their house and left me half on the death of one of them.
It worked well in my case and I was able to move in with my father to care for him.
The importance of me being a part owner was illustrated when Dad's ex tried to kick me out.

Frank

I used to work in this field and would suggest that anyone considering making any changes to property ownership should seek specialist legal advice.

In respect of your situation Tracey, your mother is completely safe, the house will not be taken into consideration so long as she lives there. If she required residential care as well then the house would need to be sold to pay for both of your parent's fees unless they had enough savings / income not to need to (in some cases, the property can be rented to top up an income.

If your mother gifts the property to someone to avoid it being used to pay care home fees, this could be considered to be 'deprivation of assets', and the beneficiary would become wholly responsible for the fees. There is, contrary to popular belief no timescale for this!

On another point which may or may not be relevant in this case, is if your relatives care is to be funded by the local authority, (either from the outset or when their savings have dropped), the local authority will inform you of the maximum fee that they are prepared to pay. Frequently, it will be difficult to identify a bed available within the amount, or the home that is particularly liked will be more expensive.

In these circumstances a 'third party top up' will need to be agreed. In this situation, the LAW does not allow the savings of the resident to be used to top up the fees.

It is also VERY important that when agreeing a third party top up, an agreement is made about future fee increases. The responsibility of the third party should be to pay the incremental % increase. So for example if the third party is responsible for a top up of 10% of the total weekly fee, any increase in fees that they become liable for should represent 10% of increase.

Finally, if your loved one is responsible for funding their own care, it is important that they claim all their entitlements. This would include Attendance Allowance, FLA or the new Personal Independence Payment, and in the event that they are on a low income, it might be worth making a claim for Pension Credit......I have known elderly people with savings of £60k+ on very low incomes who had some entitlement to means tested benefit.

AA andPIP are not income related. They are also non taxable.At present pip is only payable to those over 16 and under 65. Over 65 it is still the old AA rules.
(I've just done the training!)

I currently get DLA and ESA (support group), do you think the new system is working?