Mum going in home 26 November 2012 at 10:36PM in Over 50s MoneySaving 6 replies 1K views

J.Gibbs

Mum owns her own house and dads name is not on deeds. Mum is having to go into a nursing home so dad will need full time care as he has slight dementia. If mum is not eligable for continuous care and has to pay for her care, will her house be taken into consideration as an asset or will she have to sell it, as she was hoping to sell the house she has now and buy a larger house for me and my partner to live in along with dad, so he can have the full time care he needs with out having to go into residential care. We are just wondering if this is possible and what the best way round it would be?

cte1111

Will your Mum be needing to stay in the nursing home permanently?

I'd think carefully about whether your Dad moving in with you and your partner is the right move for all of you. Looking after someone with dementia is very hard.

Financially, I think if your Dad is to remain in the house, then your Mum wouldn't be forced to sell it to pay for her care. However a charge might be put on the house, to pay back the money owed for care when it is sold. If the house is being sold anyhow, then your Mum will be expected to use the proceeds to pay for her care, until her capital goes down to about £22,000.

J.Gibbs

The house is to be sold to buy a larger house as there is not enough room in her house or ours for my family and dad to live in, and thanks for the heads up about looking after someone with dementia but I'm a carer so know what is involved. Just wondering if its possible to buy a larger house or will they both have to go into care? oh yes mum will be in nursing home perminantly.

cte1111

Have a look at the Age UK factsheet:
http://www.ageuk.org.uk/Documents/EN-GB/Factsheets/FS10_Paying_for_permanent_residential_care_fcs.pdf?dtrk=true

Another one that applies when you have a partner:
http://www.ageuk.org.uk/Documents/EN-GB/Factsheets/FS39_Paying_for_care_in_a_care_home_if_you_have_a_partner_fcs.pdf?dtrk=true

Your Mum will need a financial assessment from her local council. They should help explain what will happen in her individual case.

In general, I wouldn't think that your Mum would be able to give you the proceeds from the sale of her house, in order to buy you a bigger house. I would think that this would be seen as deprivation of capital. The circumstances regarding the need to care for your Dad might change this though. You and your Mum need to contact the council to get more details from them

J.Gibbs

Thanks for your reply we have a meeting at end of week with social workers just thought I'd post on here to see if anyone could give us the heads up before we meet with them, surely there must be other families in this situation or is every case dealt with differently? Wondered what the legal side of things were?

Savvy_Sue

J.Gibbs wrote: »

Thanks for your reply we have a meeting at end of week with social workers just thought I'd post on here to see if anyone could give us the heads up before we meet with them, surely there must be other families in this situation or is every case dealt with differently? Wondered what the legal side of things were?

You'll get the legal side from AgeUK and Counsel and Care, but what you have to bear in mind is that anyone could have a very good reason for passing the funds from the sale of their home onto their children rather than using it to pay for their own care.

You need to look at Intentional Deprivation of Assets.

monkeyspanner

As long as your dad lives in the family home its value would not be included in any financial assessment. I am not sure what would happen if the house were sold but even though your dad's name is not on the deeds he could still have a beneficial financial interest in the house particularly if he has contributed to the upkeep or purchase.

A transfer of any part of the value of the house to yourself would be viewed as a deliberate deprivation of assets by the council. You would need to check if this would also be the case if any part of the value were transferred to your dad.

If your dad needed to go into a care home the value of the house would be assessed as part of your mum's assets and could be utilised to pay for care home fees. In addition should you enter into a joint ownership arrangement then this could cause you difficulties if your dad needed this type of care. If you do enter into a joint ownership arrangement you should take legal advice as to the type of legal ownership (joint ownership / tenants in common) you choose as this may affect your rights in the future.

Other options would be to look at entending your parents house so that it was big enough for all the family to live in or choosing a property with separate ownership units. It is likely that any capital freed up as a result of the sale/purchase would be considered as part of your mums capital and would be assessed against care home costs.