House equity and care home!

crafting-queen

My partners nan took some equity out of her house (about 8 months ago) and gave the money to her grandson to help with his house. (not my partner).

She now has to go into a care home, and has been advised that she must sell her house, the problem is she will only get the balance of the value, and she has been asked to provide proof of where the balance has gone.

Can they do this? Will she have to get the money back.

pmlindyloo

When your partner's nan gave the money to her grandson was there any indication that her health was such that a move to a care home was a possibility or was this unexpected.

Basically we are talking about deprivation of capital - you can read about it here:

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

Is there a possibility that your nan could rent out her house and using this and any pensions/benefit that she receives pay her own care home fees?

Can she remain in her home with carers attending to her needs?

Is the grandson in a position to return the money?

Lots of options to explore.

markmarkmark

If she was already on record diagnosed when she gave the money away then it would almost certainly come under deliberate deprivation of assets and be counted before she got any help with fees.

crafting-queen

She had a stroke three months after giving him the money. He has used it as a deposit for his house, it was a gift not a loan, we don't have a problem with it.

She has been in rehabilitation, but it is clear she can't live alone any more so all this happened suddenly.

I don't know if, under the equity arrangement she will be allowed to rent out the house, or if the Social Services will accept that.

margaretclare

She could surely not have foreseen having a stroke?