Protecting mums money

fluffboo

Hi,
Its looking very likely that my mum will have to go into a Nursing Care Home in the near future. She is currently in hospital and bed bound. I keep an eye on her finances and know she has around 22-23k in savings accounts and thats it. My mum went to live with my sister 6 months ago so she could help with care and my dad still lives in the family home. I know that if my mum has over 20k she will have to cover all her fees until she has under 20k and then its a sliding scale down to 12k (but some people mention 16k?) until the council take over the full cost. We've been around a few care homes and mentioned that she is just over the 20k so she'll have to pay and lets say ive been "encouraged" to take her below some of the limits.
Im not trying to do anything dodgy but my mom has 5 kids and 10 grandkids and I began to wonder if she can legally "gift" some of this money to them as the sums involved are not huge yet as she is so close to the limits would preserve some of her money within the family as opposed to paying Nursing home fees. I am vaguely aware that you can give away 3k a year and smaller gifts. Any advice would be appreciated.

derrick

THIS might help

Diane_2

I think you can give £3000 a year to someone if it doesn't diminish your everyday income. I also think you can give £250 to children/grandchildren each year without penalty.

Check the tax information on their website.

Diane

Ted_Hutchinson

I think you should be aware that what might be an acceptable gift as far as the Inland Revenue are concerned would still be regarded as "Deprivation of Capital" by the local authority.

See the guidance here
Transfer of Assets and Paying for Care in a Care Home - Factsheet 40

The Department of Health’s Charging for Residential Accommodation Guide (CRAG) gives the following
examples of deprivation:
• a lump sum payment such as a gift or to pay off a debt;
• transferring the title deeds of a property to someone else;
• putting money into a trust that cannot be revoked;
• converting money into another form that has to be disregarded from the means test, e.g. personal possessions, investment bonds with life insurance;
• reducing capital through substantial expenditure on items such as expensive holidays or by extravagant living.

The guide goes on to discuss further examples.