Care costs, paying off mortgage and deprivation of assets

Fatbritabroad

Not sure if this is the right place to post this or not but after some advice

My mum lives in her own house and is disabled (lost her leg to diabetes and is wheelchair bound). She has a live in friend who acts as her carer. She has total income between benefits spousal maintenance and state pension of about 1500 a month.

She also recently received an inheritance and has about 70k left of this in cash . She also has a mortgage of about 75k interest only due in about 9 years

Her partner is now struggling to continue care so we may have to look into home help.
Obviously because her savings are above 23250 she isn't entitled to help but my question is if we use part of the money to pay off the mortgage (which is going to be due at some point anyway or she'll lose the house) will that still count as deprivation of assets? In an ideal world we'd pay it off then wait but I don't think we can wait long to do the assessment. What are people's thoughts? It's not exactly blowing it on a car is it

xylophone

If your mother had not had the inheritance, how was she proposing to pay off the mortgage?

elsien

xylophone wrote: »

If your mother had not had the inheritance, how was she proposing to pay off the mortgage?

But she has got the inheritance. Or are you asking because there may be another some of money due in the future which would pay it off and which may affect the answers given?

TELLIT01

If there is nothing else in place to pay off the mortgage I don't see how it could be classed as deprivation as the money would have to be paid at some point. If there is a policy in place which will enable the mortgage to be paid off when due it might be considered differently. Probably a good idea to get an appointment with Citizens Advice. I certainly wouldn't ask your local authority any questions at this stage.

Mojisola

People in rented accommodation can use an inheritance to buy a property and still claim means tested benefits so paying off a mortgage should be fine - it secures your mother's home.

Fatbritabroad

xylophone wrote: »

If your mother had not had the inheritance, how was she proposing to pay off the mortgage?

An entirely different conversation and one I've had many times! no she has no other way of paying this off other than equity release

pmlindyloo

You might like to read this:

https://www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/age-uk/documents/factsheets/fs40_deprivation_of_assets_in_social_care_fcs.pdf

Has your mum looked into equity release? Would she have sufficient money from equity release to pay off the mortgage?

Reading the Ageuk link this may well have to go to a Decision Maker to determine whether paying off the mortgage would be considered deprivation of capital.

The prime decision is based on whether depriving yourself of assets was done to gain more benefit - i.e. to avoid care costs. The timing of the decision to pay off the mortgage is not good - just before claiming for care costs. I also do not know whether they would expect your mum to consider equity release.

You speak of a friend providing care and then a partner who can no longer provide care?

it might help if you could tell us what benefits your mum is receiving - PIP/DLA/AA? Pension Credit? What are her living and care arrangements?

There may be alternatives.

Is the mortgage company on her back about paying off the mortgage?

Fatbritabroad

pmlindyloo wrote: »

You might like to read this:

https://www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/age-uk/documents/factsheets/fs40_deprivation_of_assets_in_social_care_fcs.pdf

Has your mum looked into equity release? Would she have sufficient money from equity release to pay off the mortgage?

Reading the Ageuk link this may well have to go to a Decision Maker to determine whether paying off the mortgage would be considered deprivation of capital.

The prime decision is based on whether depriving yourself of assets was done to gain more benefit - i.e. to avoid care costs. The timing of the decision to pay off the mortgage is not good - just before claiming for care costs. I also do not know whether they would expect your mum to consider equity release.

You speak of a friend providing care and then a partner who can no longer provide care?

it might help if you could tell us what benefits your mum is receiving - PIP/DLA/AA? Pension Credit? What are her living and care arrangements?

There may be alternatives.

Is the mortgage company on her back about paying off the mortgage?

Sorry mixing my terminology friend and partner one and the same. Live in friend I just find it easier to say partner rather than having to explain every time.

She gets basic state pension, an annuity paid pension from my dad's pension as part of the divorce. Disability benefit and I believe she gets pip ill check that . Friend is in his 70s and a pensioner his income is above the level for carers allowance

To my knowledge the mortgage company hasn't said anything about paying it back yet but I'm aware it's due when she's I think 74 or 75. It's a very low amount house is worth about 320k. Yes we've considered equity release too

Fatbritabroad

She's 66 now BTW

calcotti

Fatbritabroad wrote: »

.... friend and partner one and the same. Live in friend I just find it easier to say partner rather than having to explain every time.

For benefits purposes live in friend and partner are completely different. A partner means living together as a couple which means that assessments for means tested benefits are based on joint income savings, Having a friend share your home is different and each person would be an individual benefit unit and assessed separately.

I don't know if having a partner to provide for may might make a difference to whether or not it is considered reasonable to pay off the mortgage.

Fatbritabroad

Thanks for the link BTW. I have seen before but it doesn't mention mortgages and to me it's not deprivation as she has no other way of paying the mortgage back in time other than as you say equity release) We've been discussing clearing the mortgage for about 12 months but she wanted to get a few health issues sorted first (some of which she ended up paying for privately for reasons I won't bother going into and not sure whether it was required or not to be honest) that was my first recommendation when she got it to at least clear part of it. If we waited I guess the council would simply look at the savings amount or would they take onto account that she has a debt that needs clearing to the same value. Its a difficult one