Equity release for elderly parent care 17 December 2013 at 10:15AM in Over 50s MoneySaving 5 replies 2.4K views

anna2825

Long story so will keep the question short! Parents live in a house worth c£500,000. Father has dementia and now mother very frail following stroke. Need to get 24/7 carers to live in and possibly convert upstairs into a flat. Can we release equity to pay for their care until they die? We are four siblings and this is causing problems!
HELP!

margaretclare

Think very, very seriously about the best options for your parents' ongoing and future care. One person with dementia, the other with disabilities following a stroke - it's very likely that neither can be cared for at home in the long-term. Re live-in carers - you may need a team of people, given that everyone needs to eat and sleep and have some rest time. Would your parents be able to stand the upheaval, noise, building work involved in having their home converted into a house containing a flat?

zygurat789

anna2825 wrote: »

Long story so will keep the question short! Parents live in a house worth c£500,000. Father has dementia and now mother very frail following stroke. Need to get 24/7 carers to live in and possibly convert upstairs into a flat. Can we release equity to pay for their care until they die? We are four siblings and this is causing problems!
HELP!

I would have thought the answer was no because the house, presumably, belongs to your parents and only they will be able to do this.
What you are trying to do is understandable but your parents have serious health problems and the first person you should be consulting is their doctor and, maybe, social services.

monkeyspanner

If your parents are both sufficienty ill to require 24hr care it woud be a good idea to have them assessed for NHS funded continuing healthcare (referred to on this and other forums as CHC). This is state funded, non-means tested, financial support where the patient's primary need is healthcare rather than domestic care and is available in any setting including ones own home.

troubleinparadise

Equity release is usually a very poor return on the value of the property concerned, especially if you are looking to fund building works plus at least one live-in carer, if not two, at a minimum of £650 per week plus living costs (food, heating, car etc).

It may also be that given your parents' physical needs will continue to decline (along with the mental decline), the house may not be suitable for continued care in that setting; if disabled showers, hoists, downstairs lavatory and bed facilities are needed as time goes on.

And there's no guaranteed timescale for that.

There is also an issue that the LPA (I'm assuming that your mother or you/your siblings have some sort of attorneyship for your father, if not both your parents?) is not always accepted by some lenders, so it may not be possible to arrange.

As suggested, if this hasn't already been done, speak to their GP about an assessment for CHC; however, if they don’t qualify for NHS continuing healthcare but are assessed as having healthcare or nursing needs, they may still receive some care from the NHS. For someone who lives in their own home, this could be provided as part of a joint package of care, where some services come from the NHS and some from social services.

As you said, you have only written a little of a long story, so maybe you've already explored that avenue, and apologies if that is the case.

You have a very difficult situation to deal with, and it may be that remaining in their own home is not possible however much they and you may want that.

This information from Age UK is helpful:

http://www.ageuk.org.uk/Documents/EN-GB/Factsheets/FS65_Equity_release_fcs.pdf?dtrk=true

cavework

Another problem with equity release is that there is usually an early repayment clause that could be very costly taking into account the health of your parents at the moment and possibly the need for Nursing home care very soon
CHC is as rare as rocking horse **** when it comes to Dementia or stroke , as on going effects of a stroke in the elderly are also classed as a form of Dementia. none exclusively covered by CHC unless they are drawing their final breath .
Its a really hard decision to make but there does come a time when elderly parents may be safer and happier in an enviroment that is specificallly designed for their needs now rather than try to maintain them in their own home
This is one of the toughest decisions people who,s parents live into very old age have to face.
xx