Inhertitance - Care homes get it!!!

AdamS

Hi,

Not sure what was the best forum category to post this.

I read this article "Wave goodbye to your inheritance" by lovemoney.com on yahoo, (wont let me post the link)

Nursing homes will simply destroy the average persons inheritance, one year in a care home £26,000+ a year!!!! Some £700 a week, £36K a year!!!

If we have £23,000 of capital, including our home, we have to sell and lose that as well to raise funds to pay for the care.
70,000 people a year have to sell there homes to fund care!!!

Basically, this is surely one way in which many families with any equity lose vast quantities of it.

There are inhertiance tax saving tips on this site for if there is any inhertiance left, but how about saving beforehand so there is some inheritance left.

How is it feasible to get capital down below £23,000 so the care is free! My example would be over 60's couple, very little in savings, and average size house, £160K, mortgage free.

In old age whats the point of money saving with the view of your kids/gran kids getting some when most of it goes to the care homes.

What can we do?

Would love to see an article directly on this issue.

Iancfp

I m sorry but why do you want the free care

OK I know its unfair to work and save and then lose it but honsetly would your children want you if you were in need of full time care to go to the cheapest smallest 2nd rate home that your local council could put you in or to see you in a good quality home of your choice

Its tough and hope it never happens but getting rid of assets to put you in poor carehome - not an option I hope your family would want for you

soolin

Be thankful if you do have enough money to pay for your own care and do not rely on the state.

My darling late father needed care suddenly after a catastrophic stroke and due to a mix up his local authority thought he was state funded and was planning to move him to a home already under investigation, with 1 *, warnings online from care commission about standard of care and over 1 hour from my own house. Luckily I was able to sell dad's house and I got him into a home local to me in a different health authority region, I choose the home and made sure I read all the commsision reports before agreeing to let him go there.

seven-day-weekend

AdamS wrote: »

Hi,

Not sure what was the best forum category to post this.

I read this article "Wave goodbye to your inheritance" by lovemoney.com on yahoo, (wont let me post the link)

Nursing homes will simply destroy the average persons inheritance, one year in a care home £26,000+ a year!!!! Some £700 a week, £36K a year!!!

If we have £23,000 of capital, including our home, we have to sell and lose that as well to raise funds to pay for the care.
70,000 people a year have to sell there homes to fund care!!!

Basically, this is surely one way in which many families with any equity lose vast quantities of it.

There are inhertiance tax saving tips on this site for if there is any inhertiance left, but how about saving beforehand so there is some inheritance left.

How is it feasible to get capital down below £23,000 so the care is free! My example would be over 60's couple, very little in savings, and average size house, £160K, mortgage free.

In old age whats the point of money saving with the view of your kids/gran kids getting some when most of it goes to the care homes.

What can we do?

Would love to see an article directly on this issue.

But your parent would have to pay for wherever they lived and if they had full-time carers to help them with things like dressing/bathing/toiletting they would have to pay for those too. If they had full time cooks and cleaners, these would not be free either.

Be thankful that they can afford to have the best care possible.

And why should the State pay for them to be looked after when they have ther wherewithall to do it themselves?

If they need MEDICAL care (as opposed to social care), then this should be entirely free, even if they are in fulltime care.

dunstonh

How is it feasible to get capital down below £23,000 so the care is free!

Would you really want to plan like that to cover an event that is statistically only likely to happen to 1 out of 10 people?

Do you really want to put yourself in a position of poverty that you spend your later years in the local authority care system?

In old age whats the point of money saving with the view of your kids/gran kids getting some when most of it goes to the care homes.

Just plan better. Use pensions more (since the April 2011 rule change on unsecured income post 75, the residual fund can be passed on - minus tax). Use trusts or investments that are outside of the means test.

More importantly, why should I or other tax payers pay for your care because your children want to get their mits on your money?

moonrakerz

dunstonh wrote: »

more importantly, why should i or other tax payers pay for your care because your children want go get their mits on your money?

Well said !............:T:T:T

roddydogs

So the state(ie us taxpayers) should pay for all care home fees no matter how much assets the person has?, so if Paul McCartney eventually need a care home, we should all foot the bill?

Loopgames

Well I plan on looking after my parents when they're older which is what we used to do in the UK before care homes were common places.

begbeer

sorry but my view is that children should not expect to receive any inheritance, their parents worked hard for it all their lives and should therefore have the pleasure of spending it all. difficult i know when you do not know how long you have got but i am going to do my best.

margaretclare

How is it feasible to get capital down below £23,000 so the care is free! My example would be over 60's couple, very little in savings, and average size house, £160K, mortgage free.

In old age whats the point of money saving with the view of your kids/grandkids getting some when most of it goes to the care homes.

We're a couple in our mid-70s and we live our lives on the assumption that we will NOT need long-term residential care rather than that we WILL. As dunstonh says above, it is only a minority of people who end their lives in this way. For those who do, if it is a medically-diagnosed illness they should get NHS care. If it is 'care' rather than nursing/medical attention, it would be better to be able to make the kind of choices that soolin describes above. Money doesn't buy happiness, it doesn't buy health, but it does buy CHOICE.

We have nothing like the amount in savings referred to above, but I am still saving because we simply do not know what lies ahead of us. Things have happened over recent years which convince me that it is better to have some savings than not to have (although I should have known that, was taught to save from a very young age!)

I don't believe that anyone has any God-given right to an automatic 'inheritance'. An inheritance only exists when someone has died. Not until. Up to then, it is my money and my assets, to do with as I choose.

Although - savings - because of the FTSE going down and down, my S&S ISA is not doing so well!! Never mind, I know it's long-term and what goes down can go up, and down..

beecher2

Loopgames wrote: »

Well I plan on looking after my parents when they're older which is what we used to do in the UK before care homes were common places.

That's all very well and good, but elderly people often have much more complex health problems than they did a few decades ago, and providing care within the family isn't always as easy as people think. Maybe I'm over sensitive, but I don't like the implication that people who don't care for their elderly parents are in some way uncaring.