Living with the mother in-law

Whiteknight

Would the annex you are considering building for your MIL be self contained for her to live in while you live in the rest of the house.

You might want to check with the council if they would consider the annex a separate dwelling.

Oldernotwiser

Are you planning to add your MIL to the deeds of the house?

If her savings are enough to build a large extension, are they enough for her to buy her council house after the discount?

Mojisola

I don't think the deprivation of capital rules would be called into play here. If we were all questioned on how we spent our money from the age of 59, probably none of us would be entitled to support in our old age!

Multi-generational households can be great communities so don't be put off the idea straight away but do look at all the possible pitfalls - for you and her - before you decide.

There are lots of potential problems. Some have been mentioned above. Is your OH an only child? If not, the other siblings might want a part of your home when MiL dies. Worst case senario - your OH dies before your MiL - will you be okay with looking after her and will she want you to? If you meet someone else, how will they feel above living with your MiL?

It would be worth getting a benefit check done by an advisor from AgeUK and see how she would manage before making drastic decisions.

sleepless_saver

robin180806 wrote: »

I think our main worry was that they would not give her anything because she has put some money aside, and then they would want her to use her savings to pay for her rent. Then she would be left with nothing and just rely on her state pension
So we were thinking if she used her savings to pay for the anix then at least she would not need to worry about rent, and elec/gas etc we could take care of for her, but we were not sure if she would be able to claim for anything

It sounds like you are all planning on the assumption that she will have money problems, so why not work out what she will actually get when she retires and then decide if there's a problem and what to do about it.

Has she had a pension forecast, if not she should get one from the Pension Service. Then she can feed the figures for her retirement income, savings etc into this benefits checker. It will show if she will be entitled to benefits (like pension credit, help with rent and council tax). She can have quite substantial savings and still get pension credit if her pension income is low enough, there isn't an upper savings limit as such (though a lot of people assume there is and are put off applying because of that.)

Example : 61 year old woman getting basic state pension £97.65, paying £50 weekly council house rent and £800 council tax a year with £20k savings will get pension credit of £15 per week and full housing benefit and council tax benefit.

Penny-Pincher!!

How is her health? If she is still working etc and nearly at retirement age, then she really isnt that old! Has she said that she wants to live with you and her reasons? She would still be entitled to her private pension and possibly state pension, but will not be able to claim HB etc , if thats what you're asking??

What exact questions do you need answering?

Jowo_2

Mojisola wrote: »

I don't think the deprivation of capital rules would be called into play here. If we were all questioned on how we spent our money from the age of 59, probably none of us would be entitled to support in our old age!

.

I'm not certain if the deprivation of capital rules apply here but all I say is that it's worth checking it out. The DWP do definately make decisions on the elderly relating to how they have reduced their capital some years in the past - it doesn't get 'written off' if it is made some time before the services or benefits are required. Frequently on the housing forum there are posts from people whose parents plan to transfer the properties to their childern or gift them large sums of money to help them get on the housing ladder and they are warned of the potential consequences of this.

Of course, the whole point of DoC is that the person is deemed to have deliberately/knowingly performed this action with the aim of getting means tested benefits, so I assume the DWP have to prove this side of it.

There's no point in the OPs MiL spending the bulk of her savings, perhaps splashing out 20, 30 or 50k on somebody's elses property, to be told in 5, 10 or 15 years time (if they ever become infirm) means they are not entitled to free social care or free care home, because the DWP believe it wasn't an appropriate way to spend it.

It won't do them any favours to express the reason why they no longer have large savings is 'because I didn't want to pay my rent with my own money so I spent it on my daughter's property which is her inheritance given to her in advance without any pesky need to spend it on my day to day living expenses'.