Signing house over to children?

She has ask me the son to find out if she should sign the house over to me to stop the goverment getting any money if she has to go in a home or into care.

A transaction that the local authority would deem "deprivation of assets" and HMRC would call a benefit in kind and retain in the estate.

I've heard that you can, but you have to wait 5-6 year before the goverment cannot get any money from the house.

Its 7 years but that applies to inheritance tax and not local authority care. Also, the gift has to be without reservation. Your mother would still be benefiting from the house so the 7 year countdown would never start.

Doing what your mother proposes usually ends up with people either getting in to trouble and paying more tax than had they done it correctly or not bothered at all.

If you have seen the state of local authority care provision, you wouldn't really wish it on anyone. Is that how your mum really thinks she would like to spend her final years? Also, only a very small minority of people (single digit in percentage terms) end up needing full time care. What has made your mum concerned about this?

Look into a product called 'immediate care annuities'.These enable you to spend part of the assets on paying for care while keeping the rest.

It's unlikely she will need care anyway, it's only a very small minority who do.But the avoidance procedures she is thinking of won't work and would eventually costs more.