can we avoid care home charges

spaniel_dog

can I just say this site is promoted as the place to come for financial information, tips and advice, I came to this site and posed a harmless question as my knowledge on the subject zero, all I have received (apart from couple useful comments) are insulting remarks about my personal history, lack of financial knowledge, ok my shortfall in the english language department meant I was not clear in wording of my original question, in stead of asking me to clarify what I needed to know you have all gone for the throat, I still say I do not agree we should pay for our care in old age and if I didnt have to wouldnt but that does not make me the villain you are all insinuating. If I had the facility I would scan the letters fro inland revenue, I dont tell lies. How many of you dont agree with paying for many of the NHS things we used to have for free. I have worked hard looking after the sick and elderly for 40 years on very low pay so I have contributed more in sweat than the financial input of a small NI stamp.
I will spread the word far and wide not to come to this site if you are hoping for sensible intelligent conversation, you will only get a slagging match, I wonder if the administrators of this site are aware of the abuse that goes on

maman

spaniel_dog wrote: »

I worked in the NHS care assistant the wage was minimum but had to pay private pension had no choice did not qualify for state pension although since learned if I didnt have that private pension would have got pension credit which is not much less than my superan pension which isnt a lot because I didnt earn much, and it as done me out of any other benefits, so I could have saved all that I paid in and lived on benefits now, having a private pension does not mean you are rich in fact the opposite just means you cant get any state help, my monthly pension is less than someone on state pension

You say that throughout the thread you have been misunderstood because your use of the words 'can we avoid care home charges' in the title didn't actually mean that you were asking advice on how to avoid care home charges.

The quote above shows you are resentful that you contributed to your NHS pension when you could have spent all the contributions and then claimed pension credit.

You've told us how you have good socialist principles due to your background yet you seem to think it's acceptable to try and abuse the welfare state by giving your assets away to your children and then expecting the state to pick up the tab.

These boards can be very good, but don't expect to ask questions on how to do something immoral and very possibly illegal without getting the sort of advice you've received.

I think your responses and attempts at a defence are rather sad as I think you genuinely believe you are entitled to 'free' care. You're not, you have assets and you'll need to use them to pay for your care. It's infuriating when we all know there are tax dodgers and benefit cheats out there. Would your principles let you be one of them?

pollypenny

An excellent summary, maman!

Errata

Has the £66 pw top up based on husband's SRP contributions stopped?

margaretclare

thorsoak wrote: »

And the answer was given to you - and the answer was YES it would be deemed as avoiding charges. And then you started on the usual rant........

I don't like the idea of paying for my care any more than anyone else - but as a socialist, I agree with the philosphy of the welfare state as it was envisaged "to each according to their needs, from each according to their means" - and as I have some means (much the same as yours, I imagine) - I recognise that I'm going to have to pay - and my children tell me that they have already got their inheritance from myself and my late OH - the memories and love that we've bestowed on them.

I'm sure that your children will think the same.

You've misquoted Marx (or was it Lenin?) 'From each according to his ability, to each according to his need'. Ed Miliband almost restated that principle very recently, but in different words.

I'm not a socialist. I believe in free enterprise, and this is a principle that has served me well over the years.

margaretclare

Torry_Quine wrote: »

Once you stopped working then you stopped paying NI so you haven't paid since you were 60.

A woman doesn't have to pay NI from age 60.

My jobs in the NHS were never all that well-paid, and I was made redundant coincidental with widowhood. DH was in responsible jobs, but 2 divorces and 5 redundancies (when UK industry went downhill) meant he was never well-off. We've always made our own decisions, though, and even at our advanced age we do not believe that 'the state shall keep us'.

Having said that, in the little market town where we live there are several retirement complexes of the 'sheltered housing' kind and we know people who've sold up and gone to live there. There are many advantages. They pay rent, but they have an income from pension payments and from the sale of their property. It's quite sociable, or as sociable - or not - as you want it to be. There's McCarthy & Stone, but that's expensive. There are some run by housing associations - 'social housing'. We've visited people who live in the latter. They all seem very happy, free from a lot of the worries that go with being a property-owner.

lostinrates

spaniel_dog wrote: »

I still say I do not agree we should pay for our care in old age and if
..........
["]. who do you think should pay for You? That's the link that seems to be missing. That 'government' money isn't from magic, its from somewhere, its all spoken for and then some, and what's there is needed for those who genuinely have nowt.]

. How many of you dont agree with paying for many of the NHS things we used to have for free.


NOTHING is free. That's what you seem not to be grasping. It might be free at point of use, but its not free, its costing all of us, your children in their tax, their later retirement age, and their children too should they have any.

I have worked hard looking after the sick and elderly for 40 years on very low pay so I have contributed more in sweat than the financial input of a small NI stamp.

and so have other people who have worked toiled hard and often harder than they are rewarded for. Often contributing in blood, sweat and tears. Maybe not all in care roles, but that doesn't mean their work is less valuable.


I will spread the word far and wide not to come to this site if you are hoping for sensible intelligent conversation, you will only get a slagging match, I wonder if the administrators of this site are aware of the abuse that goes on

Its true anywhere on the Internet has potential to be rough, and your thread has brought out the rough in most of us, because whether you admit it or not you were asking how to EVADE a payment. No better than MPs you have probably complained abut or 'greedy bankers'. Then rather than perhaps open your eyes and see it from another angle, you became defensive and failed to admit what most of us feel...

Sometimes life s unfair, but we will all face these choices. In my family we are avoiding care costs by being self provident for care. When that doesn't remain feasible those of us who need it will have to pay for it, and should that run out.....it will be a great shame.

But, should you tell people far and wide, I'd be aware how this will reflect on you. It might well be that the people you know far an wide might also seek to evade moral and legal taxations and payments, in which case, they would get similar short shrift.

Organising financial efficiency, including tax avoidance (not evasion) is well supported but the site. We ARE advised to be polite to newcomers, and newcomers generally find, I hope, that if they are reasonable and others are not then longstanding members are called up on it.

There is a button to report the posts from all of us whom you found to be offensive.

FatVonD

OP, I have no idea which part of the country you are in or how much your house is worth but, going by the figures I quoted for sheltered housing earlier in the thread, I could just about afford to sell my house, buy the sheltered housing flat and another small flat to rent out and then pay the care fees from the rental. Obviously you're then dependent on the flat always being occupied but maybe you have savings that could cover any empty months. Personally I would rent out at just below market rent and hope it was always occupied.

Don't forget also that, if you can put off going into a care home until it is absolutely necessary the care home will be funded for the first 6 months provided the house is on the market.

Also remember that the house doesn't have to be sold if one of you is still living there.

I do think you've been given a hard time on this thread (as is everyone who ever asks the same question) but I can see why you asked. It is still a fairly recent change and, as usual, it's those of us in the middle that are being squeezed. The genuinely rich will still be rich, the poor will be provided for while those of us who have tried to make a better life for ourselves and hopefully our children (many first generation home owners) are set to see it dwindle. Perhaps if those had been the rules all our lives we might have plssed it all up the wall instead!

I do wonder also how many of those objecting to have to pay for your care home provision are happily taking out more than they will ever contribute in the way of tax credits. I also wonder how much is schadenfreude from those living in social housing.

Ultimately, OP, you will have to pay for care somehow but I don't blame you for wanting to protect your assets. I am considering asking my parents to change their will (I am currently the beneficiary) should they be left with anything to be inherited for it to go straight to my son.

securityguy

I dont have to keep going over it, suggest you talk to expert as i did, the tax free allowance can only be attached to one form income and as I still show as employed (irrespective of pay) that allowance attached to NHS so pension is unearned income

Where do people get this sort of nonsense from? And why do they then parade their ignorance around, too?

lostinrates

FatVonD wrote: »

I do think you've been given a hard time on this thread (as is everyone who ever asks the same question) but I can see why you asked. It is still a fairly recent change and, as usual, it's those of us in the middle that are being squeezed. The genuinely rich will still be rich, the poor will be provided for while those of us who have tried to make a better life for ourselves and hopefully our children (many first generation home owners) are set to see it dwindle. Perhaps if those had been the rules all our lives we might have plssed it all up the wall instead!

I do wonder also how many of those objecting to have to pay for your care home provision are happily taking out more than they will ever contribute in the way of tax credits. I also wonder how much is schadenfreude from those living in social housing.

Ultimately, OP, you will have to pay for care somehow but I don't blame you for wanting to protect your assets. I am considering asking my parents to change their will (I am currently the beneficiary) should they be left with anything to be inherited for it to go straight to my son.

I can only speak for myself Von, but I do not fit your profile of 'resentment' respondent.