can we avoid care home charges

barbarawright

spaniel_dog wrote: »

if we sold house and gave the funds to our children now then in 1-2 years needed to go into care home would we have avoided the care home charges that would accrued from the assets we no longer have or would the children be required to pay from the financial gift

What puzzles me is how you will live for the next couple of years if you sell your house but don't keep the proceeds. Are you planning to move in with your kids? And what will happen if you don't need to go into a care home but have no money - you won't be able to claim housing benefit if the house sale is seen as deprivation of assets.

troubleinparadise

barbarawright wrote: »

What puzzles me is how you will live for the next couple of years if you sell your house but don't keep the proceeds. Are you planning to move in with your kids? And what will happen if you don't need to go into a care home but have no money - you won't be able to claim housing benefit if the house sale is seen as deprivation of assets.

I asked that question back on Page 1, and OP didn't respond.

I think it sounds as though OP has more funds than they have revealed if they can afford to effectively give away a house but still be able to support themselves in new (rented?) accommodation until such a time as they move into residential care.

kettlefish

I'm glad my mum and dad don't think like you OP - it is a huge weight off my mind to know they will use whatever money they have to pay for the best possible care should the need arise. My dad is only 49 and earns a good wage, of which a lot is put aside into savings... IMO, savings (in whatever form - a house, or cash etc) are for a rainy day and if you need to go into care, the heavens have just opened!

My grandma was given some very poor advice from a friend who was a solicitor - she was told to transfer her house into my mum's name to avoid paying for care home fees in future. My mum said no. Do your kids actually want you to do this?

Aside from the moral issues, should your kids ever fall on hard times, made redundant etc the fact they own another house that they are non-resident in, or have the proceeds of that house in a bank account, could mean they can't claim benefits to help them out. So they would be scuppered too; I'm sure they wouldn't want to turf you out of your home to sell the house (which would technically be "theirs", so they'd be within their legal rights to do) in order to fund their own outgoings!

lostinrates

barbarawright wrote: »

If you mean council tax, it only covers a small percentage of local government expenses. Most council funding comes from central government.

And the central govern ment ( our purse) has a huge deficit, which is part of what is making life harder for young people and workers now.

I just don't understand the reasoning that its moral to want to get out of paying for something if you can afford to. Desirable, sure...but we don't walk into car showrooms, hop into cars and I've them away, or load our trollies at the supermarket and sneak them out because we've paid the supermarket for shopping up until now, or take things for. Other people's homes or bank accounts.

jellyhead

spaniel_dog wrote: »

I am really perplexed at what others have read into my comments, of course I appreciate what we have taken in services, I dont live in a selfish bubble, my point is care should be equal for all and not based on who has or does not have assets, my mother was in care home it was a lovely place with very good staff, she was there state funded for most she obviously had her pension paid to them but her good friend in that home was a lady who had money so she was paying a lot for the same care my mum was getting, Im sorry however its wrapped up its discrimination between the haves and have nots, thanks for good wishes

It's the opposite of discrimination though, to allow free care to those who can't afford to fund it themselves.

pollypenny

spaniel_dog wrote: »

not really but because private pension pay tax on all of it

You have a tax allowance, just like everyone else in the country. And if you pay tax, your pension must be a decent one.

Re the Miners' Christmas card and Poll Tax protests, well done on your commitment.

Your socialist principles don't seem to have lasted,,though. :cool:

Errata

care should be equal for all

Why? No element of healthcare is equal for all.

onlyroz

If you don't want to pay for carehome fees yourself I am puzzled why you think that I should pay them for you.

LEJC

Ive had a great amount of contact with the care system over the last 5 years....seen the good of it and also the bad.....we've had care agencies for my parent and step parent and also a private nursing home.

If you have funds then you are classed as self funding of your care....and believe me its a far better position to be in than somone who doesnt have the means to make their own choice of care provider.

I have to say you are brave to openly come out and raise this subject,and I can understand your motives for wanting to do it your way...however I dont believe for one second that you have considered the implications of what care you will receive or even the fact that you wont have a say in your care provider should the situation arise.

Many mature adults of advancing years dony go into a care home,in fact most manage very well with the help of a care agency in their own home for many years before the needs of a care home placement are required....my mother and her husband managed 5 years of reasonably independant life with a care agency helping.
BUT ...its not cheap and to assume that you will be given the same standard of care as the next person is not always the case.

If you are part of a couple and you both require full time care in a nursing home,dont assume that because you are married that gives you any right about treated in the care home of your choice or even in the same care home.
Those who are self funded have a better choice of options over those who are social service funded.
My mother and her husband went from care in the home to a nursing home in march 2012 and as a family we were delighted that in continuing the self funding they were able to see out my mothers life in the same home together....

Please consider how you would feel if yourself and your partner/husband/wife were seperated by council funding and the effect it would have on you if you were not able to be housed in the same facility....ive spoken to peoples whos parents have been seperated by maybe 40 miles,so its not even a case that they are particularly local to eachother.

The nursing home that housed my mum and her husband did not routinely house couples...and in fact they were the only married couple there...initially the home wanted them to have seperate rooms as they had different medical needs and it did take considerable persuasion initially to allow them to share a room....I am confident that if they were not self funding the nursing home would not have allowed them to be together.

If your family are still happy with that....then yes carry on with taking steps to distribute an "inheritance"...and face the concequences.

My mother died earlier this year and she had a wonderful independant end to her life...it cost us very close to £100,000 in total care costs for her and her husband but seeing her flourish in a place she was happy was far better than any sum of money she could leave behind.

Thats just my view...having been through what you are looking to embark on....

pelirocco

spaniel_dog wrote: »

because I dont like to think what little inheritance I have left for my girls would be taken by the state for care that should be provided from all my 51 years of paying into the system

Non of us pay that much into the system , if you take into account everything else that needs to be paid for by ''the system''

Go and have a look around some care homes , and then come back and tell us where you would rather spend your final days .........you might just have a different view