Elderly parents living in poverty

TBagpuss

Mojisola wrote: »

If only one of the couple needed residential care and the other continued to live in the house, its value would be ignored.

my understanding is that fees can still be secured against the house but no enforcement action is taken as long as either of them lives there, but I may be wrong. Either way, there is no risk of either of them being forced out of their home due to the costs of residential care should that become necessary.

Mojisola

TBagpuss wrote: »

my understanding is that fees can still be secured against the house but no enforcement action is taken as long as either of them lives there, but I may be wrong. Either way, there is no risk of either of them being forced out of their home due to the costs of residential care should that become necessary.

No, the value of the family home must be 'disregarded' while one of the couple still lives there.

It's not included in the financial assessment at all.

haras_nosirrah

please change the title to

parents choosing to live in poverty type conditions despite having lots of money - what to do?

they are not in poverty. They are choosing to live as if they are which is more of a personal decision than a lack of choice.

Why are they keeping their 40k savings when they refuse to spend any of it - just so they can look at the bank balance on screen or is it in pound coins which they count? They may as well not have it and by having it they are preventing themselves receiving other benefits

fix the house, fix the heating, fix the teeth, buy some shoes and then they can have a much better life.

kidmugsy

The lack of response suggests to me that this is all a leg-pull.

atush

TBagpuss wrote: »

NB - for pension credit, their capital of £40,000 would be taken into account and assumed to amount to income of £60 per week. (5p per week per each £500 over £10,000)

So spending some of their capital on current needs would potentially bring them into a position where they would qualify for pension credit and council tax benefit .

Your Dad claiming the Cat.D pension he is entitled to would give them an extra £3,600 per year.

Plus 10.4% for each year he has deferred?

atush

haras_nosirrah wrote: »

please change the title to

parents choosing to live in poverty type conditions despite having lots of money - what to do?

they are not in poverty. They are choosing to live as if they are which is more of a personal decision than a lack of choice.

Why are they keeping their 40k savings when they refuse to spend any of it - just so they can look at the bank balance on screen or is it in pound coins which they count? They may as well not have it and by having it they are preventing themselves receiving other benefits

fix the house, fix the heating, fix the teeth, buy some shoes and then they can have a much better life.

they are hanging on to their money to pay for care. Because of bad advice perhaps? It may be wrong, and illogical. But older people do such things all the time.

I hardly think they are living as they do just to watch their bank balance.

Cheeky_Monkey

atush wrote: »

they are hanging on to their money to pay for care. Because of bad advice perhaps? It may be wrong, and illogical. But older people do such things all the time.

I hardly think they are living as they do just to watch their bank balance.

That might be true but, on the off chance that this isn't a wind up, surely the OP as their daughter should be convincing them otherwise in order to improve their life rather than come on here asking what the taxpayer can do to help them get what they want/need whilst still retaining their savings and expensive property!

Or maybe it's a case of trying to protect her inheritance.

nicknameless

Give the OP (real or not) a break.

Has nobody here got parents who act and think irrationally? Has nobody ever not known the answer to a seemingly obvious and innocent, though perhaps naive, question or questions?

Some of the ignominy in this thread is impressively sanctimonious.

Cheeky_Monkey

nicknameless wrote: »

Give the OP (real or not) a break.

Has nobody here got parents who act and think irrationally? Has nobody ever not known the answer to a seemingly obvious and innocent, though perhaps naive, question or questions?

Some of the ignominy in this thread is impressively sanctimonious.

I'm sure there are people who have but the point is that they would more than likely concentrate on doing something about it rather than letting their parents live in so called 'poverty' when they have more than enough money to deal with the situation.

It's called 'tough love'.

Alternatively, if they continue to stubbornly refuse to spend any of their own money to improve their lives then it's called 'tough luck'

nicknameless

You should meet my folks! They'd soon disabuse you of any pretense of being able to exercise 'tough love'.