Safeguarding savings and home if Care is required

oliveoil54

Linton wrote: »

Where did you get that understanding from? I think you are jumping too far ahead.


The first step will be an assessment of your husbands care needs and his finances. As you live in the house his 50% isnt counted as part of his assets. The assessment will determine how much if anything the council will pay towards his care costs. Any costs beyond that will have to be paid from his assets and income or by someone else. It would be up to your husband and yourself to determine what to do and make appropriate arrangements. One option that may be possible is for the council to put a charge on the house to be paid when the house is sold, but that would need to be discussed with the council after the assessment results are known. The council wont have the right to simply step in and seize 50% of the value of the house after the event or anything else. They cant take assets without your agreement or authorisation from the courts and in any case the extra costs due may well not have reached that level at that time.


I suggest you look at page 8 of http://www.housingcare.org/downloads/kbase/3091.pdf

Here it says...



ie if you sell the "new house" to buy another one you may be able to do so do so without any problem, but your husbands 50% share of any money left over from the sale may be taken into consideration.

The quote says The person going into care can release funds to enable the partner to purchase suitable house. However that is dependent on the person needing care being able to make that sort of decision, he has dementia would he be able to make that sort of decision if he’s bad enough to need care?

Linton

oliveoil54 wrote: »

The quote says The person going into care can release funds to enable the partner to purchase suitable house. However that is dependent on the person needing care being able to make that sort of decision, he has dementia would he be able to make that sort of decision if he’s bad enough to need care?

Interesting question. PoA and the house being in joint ownership should perhaps be sufficient. Clearly down sizing and moving close to family is a reasonable thing to do and it doesn’t make the OPs husbands situation any worse. It sounds like something that needs to be checked with a solicitor.

seven-day-weekend

Does it make any difference whether the house is owned as Joint Tenants, or Tenants-in-common?

oliveoil54

Linton wrote: »

Interesting question. PoA and the house being in joint ownership should perhaps be sufficient. Clearly down sizing and moving close to family is a reasonable thing to do and it doesn’t make the OPs husbands situation any worse. It sounds like something that needs to be checked with a solicitor.

Already have checked it with Solicitor it wa his suggestion that I think about putting it in Sole ownership now, because he was of the opinion that if I downsize at a later date the Authorities have the right to take up to 50% of any care home fees owed from the sale of the house!

oliveoil54

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

Does it make any difference whether the house is owned as Joint Tenants, or Tenants-in-common?

Not in this situation but Tenants in Common on death can if a trust has been set up as part of a Will by each partner/spouse leaving their share to children with provision that survivor remains in house till their death. If survivor goes into care think then their 50% share becomes eligible for Care Home fees.

seven-day-weekend

oliveoil54 wrote: »

Not in this situation but Tenants in Common on death can if a trust has been set up as part of a Will by each partner/spouse leaving their share to children with provision that survivor remains in house till their death. If survivor goes into care think then their 50% share becomes eligible for Care Home fees.

Thanks for that. Does this apply if the recipient of the other half is living in the house?

oliveoil54

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

Thanks for that. Does this apply if the recipient of the other half is living in the house?

Don’t understand your question? This only kicks in if one partner has died and the other surviving partner needs care, so wouldn’t be living in the house anyway?

What it essentially does if it was Joint then the deceased’s share auto passes to surviving partner ie 100% of house. If it’s Tenant in Common and there is a Trust then the surviving partner retains a 50% ownership of the property and the other 50% belongs to whoever is named in Trust/Will with provision that the surviving partner can stay in the property, for life or move into care.

Where Tenants in Common works is if the surviving partner then needs care the Authorities can only claim their 50% share not the whole of the property! If it was Joint then the surviving partner would own 100% and it would all be eligible for care home fees!

Linton

One needs to distinguish between protecting assets so that the spouse of someone in care can continue to enjoy a reasonable standard of living and that of ensuring that the maximum goes to the beneficiaries at the expense of the local authority being left with the costs. The former seems very reasonable, the latter is more controversial.

oliveoil54

Linton wrote: »

One needs to distinguish between protecting assets so that the spouse of someone in care can continue to enjoy a reasonable standard of living and that of ensuring that the maximum goes to the beneficiaries at the expense of the local authority being left with the costs. The former seems very reasonable, the latter is more controversial.

Agree totally, my main concern is to ensure if in the future if I have to buy another house other than the one we are moving to and husband is by then in care, that I have sufficient funds ideally 100% value of the house to buy a suitable house near my daughter and also enough money left to live on. I totally understand that if we both end up in care then savings and home value will ciontribute to care costs. I’m just trying to safeguard my future options especially as I do not really have a very good personal pension forecast. So will almost certainly need to use savings to live on, if he goes into care.

The question is how do I do that? My Solicitor is suggesting that the property be put in my sole name, with my husband’s agreement.

Linton

oliveoil54 wrote: »

Agree totally, my main concern is to ensure if in the future if I have to buy another house other than the one we are moving to and husband is by then in care, that I have sufficient funds ideally 100% value of the house to buy a suitable house near my daughter and also enough money left to live on. I totally understand that if we both end up in care then savings and home value will ciontribute to care costs. I’m just trying to safeguard my future options especially as I do not really have a very good personal pension forecast. So will almost certainly need to use savings to live on, if he goes into care.

The question is how do I do that? My Solicitor is suggesting that the property be put in my sole name, with my husband’s agreement.

Most of us are not qualified to disagree with the advice of a solicitor who is experienced in the care system. As someone unqualified I can see it could be prudent and dont see any downside. However if the house is to be in your name it could be very much easier to do this whilst your husband is mentally capable of understanding the implications and so legally able to consent.