Care Home Fees - assets & savings running low

Crumble22

Looking for any advise available !

My father resides in a nursing home which my mother pays his weekly £180 top up fee. Mum has tried to sell her home to A, downsize & B, free up equity as her savings are now running low. ( paying the care home from saving & some of her own living expenses as she has a low pension). There has been a family break down with my sister who has power of attorney for my father. She has refused the sale of their home. Is there anything we can do ?? It seems every avenue we turn down we hit a brick wall. Spoken with 3 different solicitors and seem to get nowhere. I heard if she moved out of the home it will then become an asset . Can this force my sisters hand to agree the sale ? 

AskAsk

if you have spoken to 3 solicitors and you still have not got the answer you want, then how do you expect us plebs to be able to offer any better advice???

Crumble22

AskAsk said:

if you have spoken to 3 solicitors and you still have not got the answer you want, then how do you expect us plebs to be able to offer any better advice???

The issue is the solicitor writes to my sisters solicitor,  and they just don’t respond! Or you get one response then nothing . Exactly what they done with selling The house put it on hold until they had spoken with her , then didn’t respond to any further correspondence. The purpose of me asking ‘ you plebs’ is because someone may have just experienced something similar!!!!

AskAsk

Crumble22 said:

AskAsk said:

if you have spoken to 3 solicitors and you still have not got the answer you want, then how do you expect us plebs to be able to offer any better advice???

The issue is the solicitor writes to my sisters solicitor,  and they just don’t respond! Or you get one response then nothing . Exactly what they done with selling The house put it on hold until they had spoken with her , then didn’t respond to any further correspondence. The purpose of me asking ‘ you plebs’ is because someone may have just experienced something similar!!!!

but what did your solicitor say to your question, "if she moved out of the home it will then become an asset . Can this force my sisters hand to agree the sale ? "

Keep_pedalling

If your sister is no longer acting in the best interest of your father then you can make a complaint to the OPG. It sounds like she is trying to protect an inheritance to the detriment of your father’s care.

https://www.gov.uk/report-concern-about-attorney-deputy-guardian

Browntoa

Is you mum choosing to sell the property or has been told she needs to sell it ?

Is the £180 a voluntary too up ? 

If the house is in both your parents name then it's a mandatory disregard for care home fees , in other words it cannot be used in care home fee calculations by the council. 

The only assets they can assess are his savings , pensions and other personal assets . 

Gavin83

Just to be aware there is a potential issue I need to highlight. While the property is disregarded because your mother lives there your father does still half own it. Therefore if she was to downsize to free up capital half of that money then belongs to him, it would be considered a change of financial circumstances and will be considered as part of a re-assessment. Therefore she'll only be entitled to half of the freed up money from the sale. Just to be clear she won't need to pass 50% of the total house price to him, just the 'profit' so to speak.

It's also a bit of a grey area but she'll also likely need to keep any new house in joint names. If she were to require care herself or dies (sorry about being blunt!) then the house would still be considered as part of your fathers assets.

Pollycat

If your Mum is getting to the point she is unable to afford the weekly top-up fee, she should speak to the council and manager of the care home as soon as possible.

https://www.which.co.uk/later-life-care/financing-care/care-home-finance/third-party-top-up-fees-ahp213p70j9k

Is your sister aware of what might happen to your Father if the top-up fees can no longer be afforded?

justworriedabit

Crumble22 said:

Looking for any advise available !

My father resides in a nursing home which my mother pays his weekly £180 top up fee. Mum has tried to sell her home to A, downsize & B, free up equity as her savings are now running low. ( paying the care home from saving & some of her own living expenses as she has a low pension). There has been a family break down with my sister who has power of attorney for my father. She has refused the sale of their home. Is there anything we can do ?? It seems every avenue we turn down we hit a brick wall. Spoken with 3 different solicitors and seem to get nowhere. I heard if she moved out of the home it will then become an asset . Can this force my sisters hand to agree the sale ? 

Hiya Crumble22
It's worth a try by contacting social services and making a telephone appointment with a care manager that specialises in care homes. I'm sure they will have experience of something like what you are encountering. As these CM's specialise in care home referrals/etc they are also familiar with payments, top up scenarios, etc.
I hope it all works out for you.

Mojisola

Crumble22 said:

My father resides in a nursing home which my mother pays his weekly £180 top up fee.

Mum has tried to sell her home to A, downsize & B, free up equity as her savings are now running low. ( paying the care home from saving & some of her own living expenses as she has a low pension).

There has been a family break down with my sister who has power of attorney for my father. She has refused the sale of their home.

As his attorney, she has to act in his best interests - selling the family home so that the top-up fee can continue to be paid is in his best interests.

You can report an attorney who isn't doing so -

www.gov.uk/report-concern-about-attorney-deputy-guardian

*Cherry*

Are the mother and father married?  How is the house owned?  the OP says "her home" and "her savings".  As I understood the rules (and this is assuming they are married and jointly owning the property) the value of the property would be disregarded as the mother lives there.  I also thought that only the savings of the person in care - or their half of joint accounts - would be counted in the assessment of fees, even then with a level at which they would not be taken below (£23k?)

I don't disagree with paying for care, and am fully on board with the better standard available when you can fully or partially self fund but if I have read the OP correctly it sounds as though the mother will eventually (soon?) be without home or savings in order to pay for the fathers care - surely that isn't how things should work?

Is the sister actually advising that their fathers funding should be reassessed so as to protect their mothers future needs rather than trying to protect her eventual inheritance?