Selling home to pay for long term care

tony_m_palantine

My father is coming up on 80 yrs old and lives in a property worth around £275,000. My mum passed away in 1992 leaving her half of the house to my brother and I (a quarter each). I'm just wondering how this would affect the situation should my dad ever need to go into long term care. I understand that if someone owns assets of over £23k the government can sell their property to pay for the care. But as the property is only 50% owned by my dad I'm wondering if they could still do this. Any advice?

xylophone

http://forum.alzheimers.org.uk/showthread.php?44409-Will-tenants-in-common-have-to-sell-Mums-house-for-care-home-fees

might be worth a look.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/268683/Factsheet_6_update__tweak_.pdf

G_M

Unless you and/or your brother live in the house I suspect te council could force a sale.

You & brother would receive 25% of the proceeds each, less capital Gains Tax, and the remaining 50% would belong to your father and be used towards care home fees.

If you/brother live in the house as your primary residence, a sale could not be forced and you could not be made homeless.

I assume you mum and dad originally owned the property as tenants in common, owning 50% each?

tony_m_palantine

Thanks for the reply G_M. That makes a lot of sense actually - cheers. Both my brother and I live elsewhere. And yes, my parents owned 50% each.

patman99

I also believe that there is a cap on how much the LA can claim. If memory serves me right, it is something like £75,000.

Btw, the private care sector which now seems to provide all the dementia care these days charges around £700 a week. So I doubt that there is any way that the LA would be able to make you pay this.

Alzheimers sufferers can live for many years, with the disease progressing from stage 1 on the Naomi Feil's scale (early onset) through to stage 4 (barely able to comprehend anything around them).

KJX

The cap on care cost isn't due to start until April 2016 - and won't be backdated to cover any spending on care and support before this date.

G_M

patman99 wrote: »

Btw, the private care sector which now seems to provide all the dementia care these days charges around £700 a week. So I doubt that there is any way that the LA would be able to make you pay this.

I don't understand this statement. I thought that was exactly what LAs did where the resident has assets (eg savings, property) over the threshold (around £18K?).

If you can prove the care need is medical, you can get the NHS to pay (nhs Continuing Care) but it is a huge hurdle to claim this, as opposed to (local authority) Social Care which is means tested.

KJX

I wonder if they mean the local authority can't make the family pay for the care rather than the cared for person?

If the LA assess the individual of having assets of over £23,250 (now) then they would not fund the care of the individual. There are rules around how the asset is held or other factors impacting 'cashability' of the asset in order for it to be considered - the LA would need to carry out a financial assessment to get the full picture. The individual is also entitled to ask for a deferred payment approach - but this would be reliant on any asset being appropriate to have a charge placed on it - where the asset is split, this might be difficult to do, so the individual and their family will be recommended to seek financial advice from a specialist advisor.

teddysmum

If I remember correctly, the care cap is not as simple as it looks. The figure is only for certain things and doesn't cover charges for food, shelter etc., which could be the bulk of someone's care costs.

KJX

teddysmum wrote: »

If I remember correctly, the care cap is not as simple as it looks. The figure is only for certain things and doesn't cover charges for food, shelter etc., which could be the bulk of someone's care costs.

That's very true - and the Department of Health won't be issuing the final written guidance for the 2016 reforms until the Autumn, so it's still not 100% clear how the care accounts will accrue.

Assuming the guidance stays as the draft, the only amount that will count towards the cap is the cost of care and support, minus the 'hotel' costs. Even the cost for care and support isn't straight forward - it won't be what is actually paid, but what the local authority would pay for a customer with that level of need - which is usually less than a self funder would pay. As an example:-

Care home costs £830 per week.
Local authority would pay (based on your needs assessment) £530 per week
Hotel costs are nationally set at £230 per week.

The care account would accrue at a rate of £300 per week. (£530 - £230).

Once you reach the cap of £72,000 or your assets drop below £118,000 you still won't get the £830 per week. You will still have to pay your hotel costs and any amount in excess of the LA assessed amount. There are a few other variables involved - the minimum income guarantee, the additional funding amount for nursing care, the ability of the LA to say they can't pay what you have been paying and requiring you to move to either a cheaper room in the home or move to a home that costs the LA your assessed rate.... The cap on care costs is nowhere near as clear as the headlines might suggest.