Gift Allowance and Care Cost

clonkel

Hi and apologies if this is the wrong forum.
My father's health is slowly deteriorating and he has a reasonable amount of money. We have split all of the assets between him and mum, this means the house is tenants in common and all of the cash has been halved into separate accounts. 
Neither of them have made use of the gift allowance. We can transfer 2 x £6k (last year/this year) into a separate account in my name (sister is fully informed). My understanding is that this is perfectly legal. However, what happens if Dad needs care in the next few months? Will this action be seen as deprivation of assets or is it ok in that we are not currently aware that he needs care and it is legal to transfer this amount?

Also, is there anything else I can do to protect as much money as possible for mum?

thank you very much

Keep_pedalling

There is no gift allowance appropriate for this situation. The £3000 pa allowance  it is only something that is of import for people whose estates are in or getting near inheritance tax territory. Any large gifts your father gifts now will undoubtedly be seen as deliberate deprivation of assets.

Have your parents both made wills? Do they both have lasting powers attorney in place.

elsien

If you’re transferring money in case he needs care in the next few months, then you are aware there’s a fair chance he will need care even if he’s not getting it at the moment. So yes, deprivation of assets would  come into play. 

Surely protecting your dad and making sure he’s got the help he might need is just as important as protecting mum? 

Depending on your dad’s health and illness he may be eligible for continuing health care which he would not pay for. 

Mickey666

Surely deprivation of assets can only be an issue if the person subsequently needs care that they cannot afford.  This might be the case or it might not, we don't really know from what the OP has stated.  AFAIK, 'deprivation of assets' is not illegal in the sense of being a formal offence, it's more that if it is deemed to be the case then public money will not be made available to provide care that COULD have been afforded before money was given away.  I've also read that any such gifted money might even be recoverable, though I'm not sure how that would be possible if it has already been spent.

Having said that, it's one thing to focus on protecting money for future inheritance and quite another to focus on how best to care for someone whose health is failing.   It sounds very much as if there's a care requirement on the horizon so what are the family's plans for that?

74jax

If you transfer the money to yourself and your dad then needs care, it is perfectly fine for you to pay for it (it doesn't have to come from his account). 
This is exactly what we did. 
The assessment will be carried out as though your dad still has the money. A care package will be put in place and the council will indicate what (if any) they will be pay and what the top up will be. The top up can come from anywhere.
We had the invoice come to me but in my parents name. 
When my mam subsequently needed care, several years later (after dad died) , it was exactly the same.
If it helps, think of it as you are the holding bank. You don't touch it or use it for you but can pay from it for parents. 
We also had POA which helped massively. 
The gift situation in this case is if this has been standard many years previously. We were able to prove that for the last 10yrs plus we all were gifted 3k a year, so this could continue when we had POA and mam had dementia. 
My biggest advice is document everything. You will never know when you might be asked to justify xyz. 
When the day comes, whatever is left is in your account and only then look at using it. 

clonkel

Sorry I am late to reply to this but we had a lot of things go wrong at once.
Yes we have POA for both health and finance. We already handle all of the finances as Dad is not capable and Mum has never done it and is scared. Due to Covid we have been their main carers and do all the shopping etc. They both have wills which we helped them set up with a solicitor. That is when we changed the house to tenants in common.
Yes it appears more-and-more likely there will be a care requirement for Dad. It is doubtful he will need to go to a care home but for sure he will need help at home. He is a big guy and Mum cannot manage on her own. She is physically fit but her mental capacity is challenging at times. We do as much as we can, which is a lot, but we are the only family members who live nearby. We have taken on so much responsibility but it is getting more difficult as we also have to care for our daughter.
I clearly got things wrong and realised that the transfer of gift allowance was only for inheritance. Any costs will be managed by us whether the money is in their account or our account. Dad's care is important but we are trying to look beyond that as it looks likely that mum will be on her own and only have access to half of Dad's pension. We are financially sound and will help her ourselves. 
If it is seen as deprivation, which seems to be the view, I think we can justify doing it on the back of inheritance and then make the money available to the care provider/local authority as needed. 

Thank you very much for the replies I appreciate you have taken the time to answer my questions.