Entitlement to council tax support - pensioner couple when one moves into care home

Joint accounts cause problems so she would be better off taking half to another account in her name and opening one in his for the other half.


The contents of a joint account are taken to be equal, so if there is £12000 in the account and £6000 goes to pay for care, they are both then considered to have £3000 each, even though half the original amount is gone.


This possibly could be in the lady's favour if it knocks her assets/income into the benefits range, but she will also have paid for care that she would not have done, if the money was separate.


This assumes that some of the care is self funded.

Straight away she will be entitled to the single occupancy discount of 25%

xylophone wrote: »

Did you read page 27 onwards of the first link?


Permanent care home residence
If you have a partner, you may no longer count as a couple if one of you
is permanently resident in a care home. You are assessed as single
people for PC purposes.


If you are a care home resident it may be possible to pass half of your
private pension to your spouse or civil partner if they remain living at
home. See factsheet 39, Paying for care in a care home if you have a
partner (factsheet 39w in Wales).

Factsheet 39 is the second link.

And you/your mother can contact CAB/Age Concern for advice on her specific situation.

The bit in red is what I was referring to in my earlier post.
We didn't take that route for my Mum.
My Dad retained 100% of his pensions to pay towards his care home fees.

This link may be also useful for the OP:
https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit/eligibility:

Working out your income

When you apply for Pension Credit your income is worked out. This includes:

• State Pension
• other pensions
• most social security benefits, for example Carer’s Allowance
• savings, investments over £10,000 - for these £1 is counted for every £500 or part £500
• earnings

If you’re entitled to a private or workplace pension, the amount you’d expect to get is calculated as income from the date you were able to get it, if you had claimed it.
You won’t get the benefit of deferring your State Pension if you or your partner are on Pension Credit, for example you won’t build up extra State Pension or a lump sum for deferring your State Pension. When working out if you can get Pension Credit, the income you’d get from your State Pension is included whether you’re claiming it or not.
The calculation doesn’t include:

• Attendance Allowance
• Christmas Bonus
• Disability Living Allowance
• Personal Independence Payment
• Housing Benefit
• Council Tax Reduction

So the AA your Mum receives isn't included in the income they take into account.

Her savings are below the £10k threshold.

Even if she gets the lower rate AA of £55.65per week, it sounds like her state pension is around £115.00 per week

So if your Mum's pension is the only other income she gets it sounds like she will be eligible for Guarantee Pension Credit to top it up to £159.35 per week.
I suggest your Mum starts a claim for Pension Credit as soon as possible.
Details of how to claim are in the lick to GOV.UK website.

In addition to payment of GPC and eligibility to Housing Benefit (possibly not applicable) and Council Tax Reduction, there are other health benefits such as eye care and dental care that kick in with payment of GPC.

xlophone - still coming up 'page not available'.

Not sure what it said but my Mum & Dad had savings in joint accounts.
A financial person from the council visited and split the savings down the middle for purposes of calculating Dad's savings for the care home.
I guess DWP did the same when assessing Mum's eligibility for Pension Credit.