Paying for care home

jammie1

Not sure if this is the right board to post this in but here goes.
I am posting on behalf of my mother in law. Her father has been in a residential care home for a few years, he owned property that was sold, he also had savings and the money from that and his pension was used to pay for the car home. Which is now running out. My mother in law has stopped paying the bill now (she has power of attorney) and social service have assessed his ability to pay.
A few years before he went into the care home he gave his daughters around £50k each from his savings (I believe he had inherited some of this money himself). So social services have said because he gave his daughters this money they will not cover the cost of the home now that his money has dwindled. When he gave the money he was fit and well, driving up and down the country, he gave them the money as a gift as he had not had anything much to do with them as children or growing up.
My mother in law has been told she has to pay, but she is currently caring for her husband who has Alzheimers and their own savings are being eaten up because of that. Can she fight this decision or will she just have to pay the shortfall between his pension and the cost of the care home.
Thank you

troubleinparadise

Why is MIL's father in the residential home? Had MIL's father been diagnosed with a degenerative disease (MS, Parkinson's, Dementia) when he made the gift to his children?

If that was the case, then it would be viewed that a person had depleted their assets when it was known that there was a likelihood of needing care (because of their diagnosis) in the future.

If he was well with no diagnosis when he made his gift then I would think MIL has a case to challenge this decision.

elsien

Could it be that he's in a more expensive home than the local authority is prepared to pay for? In which case they'll be looking for either someone to make up the difference, or for him to move somewhere cheaper more in line with what they are prepared to pay.
Even if this isn't the case and they're looking at it as a deprivation of assests issue, they cannot force MIL to pay the top-up, she can refuse on the grounds that she is either not willing or not able to pay.

As a starting point, I'd be contacting Age Concern for advice.
Edit - I think they're now called age uk.
There's a fact sheet here as a starting point, which has some information on appealing/complaining towards the end.
http://www.ageuk.org.uk/Documents/EN-GB/Factsheets/FS40_deprivation_of_assets_in_the_means_test_for_care_home_provision_fcs.pdf?dtrk=true

monkeyspanner

I assume the council are assessing the gifts as a deliberate deprivation of assets to avoid future care home costs. Unfortunately the council can go back as far as they like into the financial records to look at gifts. However, if your MIlL's dad was fit at the time of the gifts with no visibility of needed a care home i.e. no diagnosis of any degenrative diseases then that cannot be viewed as a DDof A. So your MIL should challenge this decision. In addition the council does have the power to recover the gift from the recipient but only up to I believe 6 months after the gift is made. Also not even a spouse can be forced to pay for another persons care home fees so unless your MIL wants to assist I do not think she can be forced to contribute (unless she has already signed a third party top-up agreement). The normal practice is that the council will assess her dad as if he still had the money and use whatever assets he has.

This is going to be difficult for her but she should resist this attempt to force her to pay. I believe this is a cynical ploy by the council.

In addition she should ask to have her dad assessed for NHS continuing healthcare funding which if granted would pick up the entire care home bill. If you do a search on these forums for CHC you will find information on that.
CHC may also apply in her husband's case as it is available to assist in any setting including own homes. Obtaining CHC funding is a lot of work but perhaps family could help investigate this. Essentially this funding is available when the patients primary need is medical rather than social.

jammie1

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply, am just going to phone mil and relay all the information and will do the research for her too. Will reply with how we get on.
Thank you