Care costs

sweetsand

Dear OP
Sorry to hear about your dad.
Others may have touched on certain points, but here is my bit.

AA almost always stopped in into a care home.
Care homes, well in the south of Eng have criteria.
Care home costs can rise.
If you rent, up front costs, vacant periods, risk of tenants not paying rent, repairs, letting agent fees often the first month rent taken, insurance costs.  (we normally let out slightly below market value to professional people and take max deposits via letting agents, fully managed by agents and always have insurance for rental at 50% and legal fees if it comes to a forced evictions)
you have electricl, gas certs and energy certs and depending on coucil you, or your letting agents may requesrie a lanadlords licence you have to pay for could be hundreds of pounds for 5 years.
Have you considered dad statying at home and using a community alarm sytem and these days you can have your own cctv access via smart phone etc and comm alarms have gadgets that can tell when a person gets out of a chair/bed, etc aand or full, IE being horizontal as opposed to the vertical and two-way intercoms - you can also increase care package and/or hire someone cash in hnad for the extra visits, could be 10/15 min visits just to give you all piece of mind, possibly someone you know well and trust could do that.

Take care.

Rambosmum

Just to reiterate what Elsien has said, it would be advantageous to get the local authority involved at this point and not wait until he is in the care home and has run out of money. The LA may be able to suggest things which enable him to remain living at home for longer. 

Should he need to enter residential care then you have options - 1) sell the house, 2) keep the house and rent it out (taking in to consideration all the responsibilities of being a landlord as pointed out by others) or 3) keep the house and do nothing with it. Option 1 is by far the simplest. Option 2 means all rent would be put towards the cost of care, any additional cost over and above the received rent would initially be paid out of via savings and then finally a 'charge' put against the house. This is essentially an interest free loan from the LA where they pay the care home fees (up to a weekly limit)and a 'tab' is drawn up whih is repaid when the property is eventually sold. With option 3, once the savings are gone, the LA puts a charge against the house, repaid on sale of the house. The sale of the house can be at an undefined period in the future often after death). 

On entering a care home, state pension and attendance allowance are removed. A 'stipend' is provided to the individual (around £30 per week) to pay for toiletries, clothes etc. Food and bills are included in the cost of the care home. 

The LA will only fund care up to a maximum weekly charge - what this is is dependent on the authority, they set their own limit. If a care home charges above this, a "third party top up" will be payable. As the name suggests, this is to be paid by a "third party" (i.e. you), and unless in very, very specific circumstances, is not paid by the individual. 

elsien

Following on from a previous post, please don't hire anyone willing to cut corners and accept cash in hand for such an important job.

Mojisola

Dave215 said:

Also I was thinking of renting out his house

One bad tenant and you would have a nightmare on your hands.

Is it really worth the risk?

xylophone

On entering a care home, state pension and attendance allowance are removed. A 'stipend' is provided to the individual (around £30 per week) to pay for toiletries, clothes etc. Food and bills are included in the cost of the care home. 

This does not happen if self funding.

sweetsand

xylophone said:

On entering a care home, state pension and attendance allowance are removed. A 'stipend' is provided to the individual (around £30 per week) to pay for toiletries, clothes etc. Food and bills are included in the cost of the care home. 

This does not happen if self funding.

I beleive you are  spot on.
You are allowed 4 weeks of AA even if you are not self funding unless its changed - i worked at a place that helped people with AA form filling etc years ago,

lisyloo

I am a bit confused by the initial post.
does he have a finance issue or a care issue?

if he needs residential care then why wouldn’t he sell the house?
if he pays privately he’ll still receive AA.
the LA will only get involved if he really needs care I.e. is in danger, might fall.
he can choose to go if he pays, but the LA won’t contribute just because he wants to only if there is no other option I.e. 4x 1 hour care visits are not enough.
if he’s running out of savings he should be able to get help with his care costs.

is he mentally capable?
if yes start getting power of attorney, if not court of protection.

lisyloo

Mojisola said:

Dave215 said:

Also I was thinking of renting out his house

One bad tenant and you would have a nightmare on your hands.

Is it really worth the risk?

Who is doing the job of being a landlord, meeting all the health and safety and government obligations?
my advice is sell it unless you’re already an amateur landlord we’ll versed in the job.

sweetsand

lisyloo said:

Mojisola said:

Dave215 said:

Also I was thinking of renting out his house

One bad tenant and you would have a nightmare on your hands.

Is it really worth the risk?

Who is doing the job of being a landlord, meeting all the health and safety and government obligations?
my advice is sell it unless you’re already an amateur landlord we’ll versed in the job.

Agree to a certain extent but with a good lets agent, you are ok - unless unlucky with bad T's.

lisyloo

sweetsand said:

xylophone said:

On entering a care home, state pension and attendance allowance are removed. A 'stipend' is provided to the individual (around £30 per week) to pay for toiletries, clothes etc. Food and bills are included in the cost of the care home. 

This does not happen if self funding.

I beleive you are  spot on.
You are allowed 4 weeks of AA even if you are not self funding unless its changed - i worked at a place that helped people with AA form filling etc years ago,

I am sure you are incorrect (unless it’s changed very recently).
AA is removed if LA are paying, you can keep AA if you are privately funded (I speak from real recent experience of Both).
If LA funded you get to keep about £25 of your state pension for personal items e.g. clothing.

note if LA funded you don’t get to choose to go into a home. They decide if you need it or whether you can manage at home. Social workers are a complete postcode lottery varying from bad to very good. In general you need to be unsafe to get LA funding.