Dad and care home question

Legacy_user

I posted a while ago about my dad wanting to give up his home because it was getting too much for him to manage. He has now sold it and moved in with his partner who owns her own bungalow. They live as a common law couple and he contributes to the household bills out of his work and state pensions. The amount he got for the house does not make inheritance tax an issue in the future but it is a significant amount and he does want to give some money to myself, my 2 brothers and his grandchildren.
My questions are these:

1. Although his health is reasonable at the moment he is 72 years old and has had 2 different types of cancer. If he gives us money and in the future his health deteriorates to an extent where neither we nor his partner can care for him at home and so he has to go into residential care would the local authority consider his giving us money as an attempt to hide his assets?

2. Indeed how would they know that he had any in the first place if he is living with his partner?

3. Worst of all would his partners property be considered when the authority tries to charge him for his keep? Would we need to encourage her to protect her assets? She does not have any children but has an estranged stepson by her first husband, who is deceased, and my father is the sole beneficiary in her will.

I'd like to point out that my father has taken great delight handing out a lot of the ornaments, furnishings and curios he and my mother collected over the years to us now that the house has been sold. He says at least he can get a chance to see the joy it's bringing rather than it all having to be sorted when he's dead and gone.
I think this is why he wants to give away some of the proceeds from the sale of the house. He knows that for my children and my niece, who are the eldest, reasonably sensible and at university, the money would be a godsend right now and an investment in their futures. I don't want him to give it away though, particularly to the children, for the local authority to then come along in a few years time and demand it back.

So I hope I haven't rambled too much but any advice on how to protect him and his partner would be appreciated.

Ted_Hutchinson

You will probably understand the system better if you read the factsheets from COUNSEL AND CARE

However Age Concern also have some useful factsheets relevant to your question
Transfer of assets and paying for care in a care home - FS40
Paying for care in a care home if you have a partner (206KB)
Treatment of the former home as capital for people in care homes - FS38

There is a useful website about the rules for getting health care costs paid for in a nursing home HERE

Previous thread on this subject

Some time ago I found the statistics about the percentage of older folk who entered nursing homes and how long they generally lived once this had happened. I've been looking for it but can't find it now. I seem to remember the percentage of people who actually went into a nursing home was extremely low. Most folk staying in their own homes until they become ill then going to hospital and dying there. With I seem to remember less than 10% actually needing to stay in a nursing home. Of those who did leave hospital not to return home but to a Nursing/care home the vast majority died before six months were up. So the prospect of having to lose all the value of his current capital is most unlikely.
Firstly because it is most likely he will not go to a nursing home and secondly
if he does he probably won't stay long enough to exhaust his current capital.

in_my_wellies

We tried to persuede MIL to give some of her money to grandchildren, just £500 a year x 6. She had worked so hard and not spent much on herself and what as shame to let it all go in care home fees, etc,etc. She would not budge.
Then she died suddenly and unexpectedly. DH was left to sort it all out (SIL said 'just let the socicitor do it). When going through cheque books we were amazed to find she had been acting on our advice all along. Stubs for £100 a week were all going to SIL children!!! And a car, piano and a horse - all funded by her.

Then when it was all sored out, by DH, she queried the £5 she gave the gardener!!