Care Home Funding (what if mum sold me her house!?)

Indout96

Wouldn't you?

Personally yes,
However I expect that to happen, the majority of the people that it is happening to now expected to leave their houses as inheritance to their children, in fact home ownership was sold with this as a benefit in the 50’s. A bit like the endowment miss selling that went on in the 80’s & early 90’s really

Person_one

Indout96 wrote: »

Personally yes,
However I expect that to happen, the majority of the people that it is happening to now expected to leave their houses as inheritance to their children, in fact home ownership was sold with this as a benefit in the 50’s. A bit like the endowment miss selling that went on in the 80’s & early 90’s really

They probably weren't expecting to live as long either.

People who die relatively young generally still will leave their homes to their children, as they won't have needed to use it to fund elderly care. People who die in their seventies or above will likely have grown up, middle aged children who have probably got themselves housed, employed and generally sorted out a bit already, and will use the inheritance of a house as a windfall to spend on an improvement or luxury rather than as a place to live.

I don't see why the state should pay for elderly care just so a bunch of middle class 50 year olds can have a new kitchen, car or three weeks in the Maldives!

puddy

if you pay for your own care, then you have a choice at least as to where you go into care. someone who relies on the state to pay doesnt have that choice and will go where they are put. the state doesnt pay all of the money, they have maximum amounts so if the care home is 700 a week, and the LA only pay up to 600 then the patient has to find 100 a week to contribute towards it

pelirocco

Indout96 wrote: »

She will get exactly the same care as the person in the next room who pays nothing due to spending their money rather than saving or house purchase. My mother in law gets no better treatment for the house she had to sell than most of the residents of the home she is in who pay / paid nothing.

My MIL had dementia , and when it got to the stage it was impossible to care for her at home , we looked at several care homes , the difference in the care was staggering , My Oh and his sister visited a council run one , and there was no way they would have their mum living in there , the basic care was there but the residents clearly did not look happy . We found a small privately run one , who provided so much more then care . Sadly my MIL died before she could move in .

I would suggest you look around at other care homes

onlyroz

I agree that you pay for what you get. We are currently looking for a home for my mother-in-law, and there does seem to be a broad range of standards and costs. Our concern, though, is to find a place that will make her final years as comfortable as possible. And yes, that does mean selling the house to pay for the care.

superpup

Are you in a position to rent her property out and top up any shortfall yourself? I don't know how much tax would be payable but it could be an option if you could expect a decent rent from it and have funds to spare to add to it yourself.

My Grandmother now lives with me and I have had to give up work and claim carer's allowance. We are just about managing at the moment but I am hoping we find tenants for her property soon as the extra money will certainly help. I don't go out any more, buy clothes/stuff and can't imagine going on holiday for quite some time (hopefully years!) but I don't feel deprived or miss them. My Nan is good company and I love her to bits and the fact that she's happy here, safe, looked after and not lonely any more is priceless.

I will do all I can so that she doesn't have to go into a care home as she would hate it. She's always been there for me and while I'm physically able I will look after her here.

My Grandfather was in a council run home for a couple of months before he passed away and he was very well cared for but I do appreciate he was lucky that it was available as there are other homes in that area that aren't so good.

I appreciate that caring for relatives isn't for everyone but please don't put yourself before your Mum's quality of life in her final years. If looking after her yourself isn't an option and you don't want 'your inheritance' to be swallowed up in care home fees, then you maybe have to think outside of the box and explore more avenues.

monkeyspanner

puddy wrote: »

if you pay for your own care, then you have a choice at least as to where you go into care. someone who relies on the state to pay doesnt have that choice and will go where they are put. the state doesnt pay all of the money, they have maximum amounts so if the care home is 700 a week, and the LA only pay up to 600 then the patient has to find 100 a week to contribute towards it

If the patient is council social services assisted then they will have less than the savings limit and they are not permitted to top up their fees from savings or their weekly spending allowance of about £20. The top up has to be paid by family, friends, a charity or some other 3rd party. If there is no 3rd party to provide this funding then a care home which will accept the councils standard assisted rate has to be found. If no place can be found at the standard rate then the social services is obliged to make up the shortfall.

plummie2003

Firstly, having experience of working in a Nursing home, as the administration manager to be precise, i have a bit of knowledge on things like this. In answer to the first post.. unfortunately no there is no way round this, not unless you can go back say ten years and pre-empt this, take the house from her and ten years on she goes into care on a social service funded place.
Alternatively, depending on the value of the home you are wishing to preserve, If it is worth alot of money and your mum is expected to live for a substantial period of time, perhaps a care fees annuity could be an option, although expensive initially, and the house would have to be sold i would expect, unledd you currently have a 6 figure bank balance, it woulc potantially preserve alot of the extra money from selling the house.
As for these posts on 'getting what you pay for' That is honestly the biggest load of rubbish i have ever heard, the care home i work in is a nursing home, we have county council patients from 3 different counties all paying council fees which are very low, we also have a number of private residents paying for their own care, one who has actually taken out an annuity. And we have a lot of residents on CHC funding. The care provided in our home is second to none, we have not been without a waiting list for a very long time and we do not reveal to the staff who pays what and how, so everyone recieves the same standard of care. There are many nursing homes round the area i work in offering 5* accommodation, en quite bathrooms, brand spanking new furniture and what not, but is the care there.. no. You dont necessarily always get what you pay for, you sometimes have to look beyond the sparkly chandeliers and the flat screen TV's.

What physical/mental state is your mother currently in? I am not sure if you have veard of CHC funding, it is called continuing healthcare funding and is available to patients with needs over a specific level, be they private or council residents. It's almost a way of keeping hospital beds free. If they can be looked after in a care home, it will almost certainly be cheaper than keeping them in hospital. Your mum might qualify for CHC funding if she is in a state of ill health, physically or mentally or if her health is deteriorating.

With regards to the annuities, they are great if your mum is going to live for say ten years, as it would have paid for itself and potentially protected some of the assets of the sale of the house as you wished. Unfortunately if your mum dies within a matter of weeks for example, you will have paid out in excess of about £100,000 for a few weeks care, its almost taking a gamble on your mums life expectancy.

I hope this information helps, I know it can be a difficult time deciding whether to put your mum into fulltime care and protect her assets, whilst i can understand where everybody else is coming from, why should someone who has worked hard and saved hard for their whole life to buy a home and have assets of value have it all taken away at the last hurdle when people who quite frankly have done nothing to benefit themselves or the economy be recieving the same care for free? (not that i believe they deserve to be put out at the roadside to rot either!)

Susan_Frost

OP says mum is decreasing in health and MAY decide to go into a care home.

If mum is not in such a need at the moment, would it be better for mum's health to downsize her home into a privately owned sheltered housing type apartment accommodation, and with money released pay for a cleaner and other support out of the money. This keeps ownership of a home and releases money which can also be gifted (within the legal limits) to daughter each year.

Eventually a nursing home may be necessary, but there are sometimes other options than going from running her own home to a full time nursing home.

We dont really know the extent of mum's health so it is difficult to say.

One thing for certain, no way will social services, government or the local council accept the selling of a house to anyone at anything less than a reasonably realistic price, even if that is quite cheap compared to others in the area. Sorry, £1 cannot be done.

Plans_all_plans

plummie2003 wrote: »

why should someone who has worked hard and saved hard for their whole life to buy a home and have assets of value have it all taken away at the last hurdle when people who quite frankly have done nothing to benefit themselves or the economy be recieving the same care for free? (not that i believe they deserve to be put out at the roadside to rot either!)

Umm, well some people have never been a position to buy their own home or save up, that's why. It's not because they're lazy, just that they have never been in the fortunate position of having assets.

My nan and grandad are a case in point: she never worked after her marriage as she was raising their 5 children, as was the norm in those days. My grandad left school at 15 and worked full time for the council until his retirement at 55 (through ill health). Unfortunately, my grandad passed away a while back (and never needed to go into a care home). Should the time come when my nan need full time care, I expect my mum'll do it, but if she doesn't, she'll have to have a state funded place, through no fault of her own.

They were never in a position to buy their council house and aside from this point, my grandad did not believe in the selling off of council homes, so I doubt he'd have bought it even if he could have afforded it.