Free Social care in the home Scotland

In England the account is seen to be split 50:50, but there are snags.
These are completely made up figures to illustrate a point :
Maximum savings allowed to get help £16000
Amount in account £40000 ie £20000 each


You may assume that once £4000 of the person needing care's money is used the amounts would be £16000 entitling help with care and £20000...


but this is not the case. Now there is £36000 in the account,each is assumed to have £18000 meaning the target is not yet reached. (For the person to be assessed as having £16000,there must be only £32000 in the account.)


It is therefore better to separate the individual holdings into different accounts in the holders' own names.

teddysmum wrote: »

In England the account is seen to be split 50:50, but there are snags.
These are completely made up figures to illustrate a point :
Maximum savings allowed to get help £16000
Amount in account £40000 ie £20000 each


You may assume that once £4000 of the person needing care's money is used the amounts would be £16000 entitling help with care and £20000...


but this is not the case. Now there is £36000 in the account,each is assumed to have £18000 meaning the target is not yet reached. (For the person to be assessed as having £16000,there must be only £32000 in the account.)


It is therefore better to separate the individual holdings into different accounts in the holders' own names.

This is correct, but in the case of an account shared with a non spouse SS will look at the account to determine if it is genuinely a shared account. For instance, if only one person has contributed to the account or one name was added recently this would raise questions. If the two people lived together and it was the household expenses account then there wouldn't be a problem.