Mother in Law going into a Home

chunky4756

HI, i am new here and my first post so if its in wrong place i apologise.
My mother in law feels that one day she will be better off in a home, but as she has bought and paid for her house this would be used to pay for the care.
Is there a way round this?.. if she sold the house and gave the proceeds as a gift to my wife, lived with us for a while, then went into a home with no assets to pay for it would the bill be picked up by the govt, and would the money gift to my wife be taxable??
quite a lot for a first post, but its something that is worrying her as she feels she wants to be able to leave the house to my wife and not have it paying for her care.... the house is probably woth around £150,000

Thanks

00ec25

that could potentially fall foul of the rules relating to deprivation of assets

there is a factsheet about this on the age concern website here

http://www.ageconcern.org.uk/AgeConcern/Documents/FS40Transfer_of_assets.pdf
also search on deprivation of assets in google as there are other charities aimed at senior citizens which offer advice/info on this

SeniorSam

chunky4756 wrote: »

HI, i am new here and my first post so if its in wrong place i apologise.
My mother in law feels that one day she will be better off in a home, but as she has bought and paid for her house this would be used to pay for the care.
Is there a way round this?.. if she sold the house and gave the proceeds as a gift to my wife, lived with us for a while, then went into a home with no assets to pay for it would the bill be picked up by the govt, and would the money gift to my wife be taxable??
quite a lot for a first post, but its something that is worrying her as she feels she wants to be able to leave the house to my wife and not have it paying for her care.... the house is probably woth around £150,000

Thanks

If action is taken 'specifically' to avoid paying for care costs, then it will not help. However, your mother may not need to go into care and if she sold up, gave most of the money to you (no tax) that could be used for improvements to your home for the additional person.

Your best advice would be to consult an Independent Financial Adviser that specialises in care matters and he could best advise you.

Hope this helps

Sam

margaretclare

Your MIL feels that one day she will be better off in a home.

If I were she, I would be thinking about this quite seriously, discussing if necessary. Why does she 'feel' that? And what makes her think she'll be 'better off' in a home - better off in what sense?

I would want to think all this through if I were she, question my own motives if you like. But then I'm like that - it's the way my mind works. What age is she at present, what age does she 'feel' that she might be 'better off in a home'?

DH and I have thought quite the opposite. We have done our darndest to make this place as easy-care, convenient and manageable as possible, for as long as possible. Hell will freeze over before either of us seriously considers being 'better off in a home'. But then, that's us, it's the way our minds work. We don't even like package holidays or organised activities for our age-group - hate the regimentation. Others feel differently - they enjoy a holiday when all the planning and organising is done for them, not us.

What I am saying is that to be happy in residential care needs thinking about seriously, and it's not just the question of paying for it. Obviously your MIL is thinking of this as a possibility but would prefer not to pay for it herself. If that's the case her possibilities are likely to be even more limited than they would be if she had the choice that goes with paying her own fees. She'd be stuck with what the cash-strapped local authority could provide, and it may not be what she'd prefer.

John_Pierpoint

I believe one old man in 5 and one old woman in 3 end up in residential care.
The alternative could be being shuttled about between the children, having a truly devoted family member prepared to care for the elderly person or paying for care in your own home. Home care is usually paid for by employing an agency to find a series of carers. The individual carers only get a proportion of the fee being paid and they work on a "self employed" basis.

I notice that the politicians have been floating the idea of putting a flat rate tax, mooted to be 12K on all estates to pay for elderly care.

Current local authority care is very "minimum adequate" and I don't think I would like it; but perhaps by then they could put me on the happy pills and I could join in the fun.
I was about 10 last time I played bingo and it was called "housey housey" in those days.

RayWolfe

Should your mother require care, then it would surely be preferable for her to have a good stash of cash in order to get better care than local councils can afford to pay.
Think about your own motives and encourage her to do the very best for herself rather than for some grasping children ... not, of course, that you are in that category.

withabix

I believe this can get 'got round' if the property has been transferred 'x' years before the move into care home happened.

Someone in the know will probably confirm. I think it is 6 years?