Early inheritance query (Please help!)

Errata

leeoka wrote: »

Thanks for your replies...

Is he classed as being under local authority care?

He is in his own bungalow and has a warden check on him twice a week.

No, he's not under local authority care. His warden check service is included in his rent.
Confirming what NOH posted on deprivation of assets. The key is intention.
For example, if I gave all my savings away to younger relly's to help them out with deposits on houses, being in good health at the time with no indication that I would no longer be able to care for myself, this would not be classed as deprivation of assets if two years later I developed serious problems and needed to move to a care home. This has been discussed at length on other threads on other boards.
It would be unreasonable for a local authority to expect people never to spend or give away their savings on the offchance they would need residential care at some point before they died. In any case, the trend nowadays is for people to have more support in their own homes, as they start to need it as this allows people to retain their independence and gives a better outcome on all measures than a place in a care home.
The information on care needs on the Help the Aged, Age Concern and Alzheimers Society websites is well thought out, accurate and always kept up to date. HTH

dunstonh

Intention has to be proved. Doing it after the event is easily proven. Doing it more than 6 months before is harder. Indeed, the handbook on what can and cannot be included does state 6 months before as a minimum timescale.

So, whilst intent is very important and perhaps the primary thing to consider, timing also comes into play.