Care Home Fees Immediate Needs Annuity

Rosie1980

Yes I have PoA. It's difficult to get any info about care annuities, apart from have to use a financial adviser. I could as you say PM, I shall try that if no response, I just thought any pearls of wisdom would not only be useful for myself but others hitting this scenario.

xylophone

It's difficult to get any info about care annuities,

The INCA is a specialised product and the number of providers is limited -
see post 3 - you would need to take advice.

http://societyoflaterlifeadvisers.co.uk/find-an-adviser/

Rosie1980

Yes I know all of that I am just interested to hear someone's experiences of the process.

kkgree1

Rosie - I am going through the process at the moment helping my mother-in-law with quotes for a care annuity. Her son (my husband) and daughter have POA.

I'm using a company recommended on SOLLA who also had good reviews online. I initially spent 20 minutes on the phone to an advisor who took thorough details and gave us a brief outline of what we could expect from the quotes (incl a rough indication of cost).

The quotes take 6 - 8 weeks to obtain from the 3 companies who as others have said specialise in this type of annuity. They obtain a report from the GP and an assessment of care needs from the Home Manager (no medical needed).

So far I've been happy with them as they have not been at all pushy and clearly explained their fees upfront.

We will see when the quotes come back and whether we go ahead or not!

Would be really good to hear other experiences as well.

Rosie1980

I did get an estimate from a company but I think in our situation the annuity will cost almost all of what she owns so there is little point taking the gamble. It looks like we might go with a deferred payment from the council. Has anyone got any experience of this? I was initially against it due to fees and interest but after a chat with a lady at the council it would appear that by using a deferred payment Nan only pays what the council pays for her room, which is £150 a week cheaper than she would pay as a private resident. It's criminal but it's a bit of a no brainer. My last thing is to see if I can negotiate a better private rate with the home. If I can't then I think we'll go for the deferred payment and rent her home to reduce the debt to the council.

Mojisola

Rosie1980 wrote: »

It looks like we might go with a deferred payment from the council. Has anyone got any experience of this? I was initially against it due to fees and interest but after a chat with a lady at the council it would appear that by using a deferred payment Nan only pays what the council pays for her room, which is £150 a week cheaper than she would pay as a private resident.

Double-check that.

What happened with my Dad was that the council arranged a deferred payment agreement for the amount that the council would pay for a care home placement and Dad had to pay the top-up fee direct to the care home.

If Dad had been unable to pay the weekly top-up, he would have had to go to a home that charged the rate the council was willing to pay.

greenglide

and rent her home to reduce the debt to the council.

Are you sure the house can be let out when the council is paying for care? I have doubts.

Our council did an assessment of my mother in law's income and we pay half and the council pays half (roughly) and their contribution is secured against hey house. She owns two flats - typical Newcastle flats where she owns and occupies the ground floor and the upper floor is let. I suspect that even in this case the council doesnt have to agree to this.

The home has two room types - small and large. Anyone who knows to council rate can negotiate to pay this rate themselves - we did that with my mother when she was in the same home - a typical bogof deal!

Rosie1980

Mojisola thank you, I am planning to talk to the home tomorrow to see if the private rate is negotiable but I will confirm with them too that there is no extra to pay if we go with the deferred payment. The lady from the council said that because we are entering a contract with them they are continuing to rent the room therefore it will only be the £450 a week they pay for it, not the £609 we've been quoted privately, but I will check again. If she couldn't fund it herself the council would pay the full amount. The lady did make it very clear that should we move her somewhere more expensive we would have to find the funds to pay the top up above their limit when she runs out of funds.

Greenglide I specifically asked the lady about renting the property and she said yes it was fine to do so, I'm not sure if they put any clauses in about who you can rent to, I will have to check that out further. She told me renting is what a lot of people do. The bigger issues maybe the mortgage that Nan still has on the property. And thank you for your advice on negotiating, it's reassuring to know people have successfully done so.

[Deleted User]

If your mum has gone into care for HEALTH reasons the LAW says the NHS must pay. She should be assessed for her health needs by a multi disciplinary team and you can be present for this.

Until this has been done, do not mention money.

There are extensive threads on this and lots of info in the over 50s section of the forums.


If health reasons do not apply then she will need to pay her care fees.

Rosie1980

Thanks Deleted_User yesterday I attended the meeting with the social worker to complete the checklist for the Continuing Healthcare Assessment. It highlighted Nan was eligible for the next stage. However if I hadn't been pushing for this for several weeks they would quite happily have under scored her (as a previous social worker had done without our knowledge a checklist was even taking place) and said she had to be self-funded. I know we aren't there yet and the assessment sounds very rigorous but to get over the first hurdle is a triumph.