Advice on parents money?

Cacran

My mother has dementia and is in a home. She pays about £350 a month towards her care. My dad lives alone.
They both made Wills leaving their money and property to each other. The second one to die will leave their money and property to my brother and myself.
If my dad died prior to my mum, then all their money and property could be taken to pay for her care, as far as I can see.
Is there a way of safeguarding this happening? It's not that I particularly want to make money on my parents demise, just think that the system is unfair where people who have nothing, pay nothing, and still get the same care.

Errata

By property do you mean a house or do you mean some other kind of property? If it's a house, is it held by your parents as Joint Tenants or Tenants in Common?
If it's held as Tenants in Common get your dad to make a new will leaving nothing to your mum. This will protect his share of the house from being used to pay for your mum's care if she outlives him.
There's a lot of information about this on the Age Concern and Help the Aged websites.

The system may seem unfair, but we can't really leave those who have nothing and can't pay anything to go without any care until the die.

Biggles

Cacran wrote: »

If my dad died prior to my mum, then all their money and property could be taken to pay for her care, as far as I can see.

No, that's not true.

Clearly she's already been assessed as being able to contribute towards her care, so already has some assets. In the event your father died first, she may well be required to pay more, and she may then need to sell her house (which, obviously, she would no longer have a need for) in order to continue the payments.

monkeyspanner

Biggles wrote: »

No, that's not true.

Clearly she's already been assessed as being able to contribute towards her care, so already has some assets. In the event your father died first, she may well be required to pay more, and she may then need to sell her house (which, obviously, she would no longer have a need for) in order to continue the payments.

All care home residents are expected to contribute the bulk of their weekly income less a weekly allowance of around £20. I assume as the amount is relatively small at £350/month compared to the full cost of the care home which is likely to be at least £1500/month the bulk of the contribution is state pension.

I would recommend look at www.counselandcare.org.uk for some good information on care home funding.

The most obvious possibilty would be for the father to change his will in favour of his sons. His share of the property would therefore bypass the mother's assets if he predeceased his wife. It would be possible to look at the purchase of an immediate care anuity with the mother's share of the property this would limit the asset spend to the cost of the anuity (if the anuity produced sufficient income to cover the care home costs).

Robert_Sterling_3

I think if they are joint tenants the survivor gets to own the property. If they are tenants in common each owns one half of the property.

I recently changed our house from J.T. to T.I.C.
I got the documents for about £8 each, one for me and one for my wife.
I think the online website was something along the lines of www dot Law on the web dot co dot uk
I think several websites do this for you.
I do not recommend any particular one

I think I also had to notify the Land Registry. It cost peanuts.

You need to get a disinterested party ( a friend ) to be present and to watch you sign the document ).
Put your cursor on the line above the dotted line below while pressing the left hand button to see a little party trick.

.......... http://www.lawontheweb.co.uk/jointtenants.htm
......................................................................................................

Bear in mind that your father may himself need care in due course.

Cacran

I am not sure whether my parents are joint house owners or Tennants in Common. I will need to do some checking on that.
I do agree that no one can be left without care if they have no assets but do think that care should be free to all regardless of assets. That is just my opinion. I understand that in Scotland that is the case already!
My parents only own their own property and have no other assets of any great value just personal stuff and a bit in the bank. Obviously if they'd had a lot my mums care fees would have been much higher. Care is funded from her state pension and some of her private pension.
I will have to chat with my dad, I think. It is a delicate subject.
Thankyou for your replies. I will indeed look at some of the sites recommended.:beer:

Robert_Sterling_3

It may be a delicate subject but it is also, in my opinion, an important subject.

Errata

She pays about £350 a month towards her care.

Care is funded from her state pension and some of her private pension.

It looks like there is a shortfall of at least £1k a month. Is the Local Authority meetng the shortfall and has it put a charge on the house?

moonrakerz

Would suggest you get expert legal advice on this.

I had something similar a few years back.
My father had several strokes and it looked as though he would need long term residential care.

My mother/father would not have had to pay fees. However, we were advised that if my mother's sister were to die and my mother were to inherit her house (this was in her Will) then this house became her asset and could be taken as a charge against my father's care home fees. (We all used the same Solicitor, so the overall "family" situation was understood by them.)
As it turned out my father died and this particular problem did not arise.

However, we were then advised that this could occur again if my mother ever needed residential care. When my mother's sister died a few years later, she (all in agreement) varied the Will so that her house passed directly to me. My mother remained living in the house, but she never actually owned the place so no care homes fees would be liable/chargeable.

But - do get advice !

chesky369

Do you mean your mother's house or your aunt's house passed to you?

p00hsticks

Cacran wrote: »

I do agree that no one can be left without care if they have no assets but do think that care should be free to all regardless of assets. That is just my opinion.

It's never really 'free' though is it ? Someone, somewhere has to pay, and if it's not the person receiving the care, then it's someone else, usually the tax payer.

To take an extreme example, would you really be happy to see ex-RBS boss Sir Fred Goodwin living in a care home for free for the rest of his life with costs met by you and I as taxpayers whilst he continues to rake in his £650,000 a year pension ?