House title in one name only and care home fees

Robrob1981

My parents are married and in their early 80's.
Unfortunately mum has recently had to go into a care home as she is not on her feet and has dementia. The care package has not been worked out yet and she is still under free NHS care for a few weeks more.
Sadly my dad has recently found out that he is terminally ill. He probably has 6 months or so to live.
We have been looking at finances to fund mum's care and discovered that the house is in my dad's name only and there are no joint savings.
Mum has a small amount of savings (about 30k) and a small state pension. Dad has the house (£250k approx), a private pension in his name only plus substantial savings (100k approx I think but am not sure).
He doesn't want all his money to be eaten up in care home fees when he is no longer with us so plans to leave the house and savings to his two children in his will. It goes without saying that us kids intend to do right by our mum whatever happens and will be topping up any state care home fees so she is comfortable.
My question is can he do this?
Will social services attach a lean on the house?
Will they go after my dad's assets?
Please only answer if you know what you are talking about and no judgey comments please. 
Thank you

RAS

You mention a lean? Is this Scotland?

Robrob1981

No it is England

elsien

Have a read of this.

https://www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/age-ni/documents/factsheets/fs39_paying_for_care_in_a_care_home_if_you_have_a_partner_fcs.pdf

I don’t think it’s quite as simple as your father willing all his assets away elsewhere. The local authority  have to just consider your mum’s assets in any financial assessment but  they may be considering whether your mother has acquired a beneficial interest during the length of their marriage which is likely to be a real possibility in the circumstances. Dad should probably get proper legal advice on this one. 

Is there a lump sum from his private pension when he passes as that is may fall outside of his estate and go to your mother anyway. 

Is there a power of attorney or deputyship in place for mum, because if so whoever it is probably needs to be asking these questions in her best interests as well. 

Keep_pedalling

If you father makes a will with no provision for his wife I think it possible that the LA may challenge the will under under the Inheritance (Provisions for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 on behalf of your mother. Does anyone currently have power of attorney for her?

You say he does not want all his assets to be eaten up by care costs, but what he is proposing is attempting to avoid any of these assets to be used. You and your sibling don’t seem too happy with this approach so could you persuade him to compromise with 50% to his children and the rest to his wife to make her as comfortable as possible at the end of her days?

You could of cause make variations to the will after he has died if he insists on going down this route.

Robrob1981

Keep_pedalling said:

If you father makes a will with no provision for his wife I think it possible that the LA may challenge the will under under the Inheritance (Provisions for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 on behalf of your mother. Does anyone currently have power of attorney for her?

You say he does not want all his assets to be eaten up by care costs, but what he is proposing is attempting to avoid any of these assets to be used. You and your sibling don’t seem too happy with this approach so could you persuade him to compromise with 50% to his children and the rest to his wife to make her as comfortable as possible at the end of her days?

You could of cause make variations to the will after he has died if he insists on going down this route.

His opinion is that the state will pay the costs anyway so it will make no difference to mum one way or the other.
The illness mum has has come on very suddenly - probably caused by hospital stay for broken hip.
We had no warning really so no power of attorney in place. Dad is just in the process of drawing up his first will and his power of attorney now. 
I was dubious about all this and could care less about inheritance personally tbh.
I will mention the 'family and dependants act' to him. He is currently getting advice from a solicitor drawing up his will anyway.
I know for a fact that if mum was fit and well and living at home he would have left her the majority of his estate.
Thanks for the advice.  
elsien

bobster2

Keep_pedalling said:

If you father makes a will with no provision for his wife I think it possible that the LA may challenge the will under under the Inheritance (Provisions for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 on behalf of your mother. Does anyone currently have power of attorney for her?

You say he does not want all his assets to be eaten up by care costs, but what he is proposing is attempting to avoid any of these assets to be used. You and your sibling don’t seem too happy with this approach so could you persuade him to compromise with 50% to his children and the rest to his wife to make her as comfortable as possible at the end of her days?

You could of cause make variations to the will after he has died if he insists on going down this route.

Keep_pedalling is correct. Action under the Inheritance (Provision for Family & Dependants) Act 1975 is a real possibility here.

50% of the estate to his wife and the rest to the children would likely be defensible and reasonable under the circumstances.

bobster2

In order to determine what a court might see as reasonable "the court can take into account the standard and style of living and reasonable expectations of the applicant, including what they might have expected to get if the relationship had ended with divorce instead of death"

https://www.birketts.co.uk/legal-update/all-you-need-to-know-about-the-inheritance-provision-for-family-and-dependants-act-1975/

The "applicant" being your mother - even if the action was being brought on her behalf by the local authority.

jamesmorgan

One area that needs to be considered is that the local authority won't simply pay the care costs for the care home that your mother is currently in.  They have a duty to find the cheapest care home.  They will ask care homes to respond with their proposed costs based on your mother's needs and then choose the cheapest.  This will likely mean that your mother will need to move care home and the quality of the care home chosen may not be in line with the family's expectations.

Having recently moved two elderly relatives into care homes, we visited many care homes to assess suitability.  Many of the care homes that accepted local authority funding were pretty dire.

Browntoa

I would think any will drawn up now is likely to fail the "deprivation of assets" test as it's being done now with full knowledge of your mums expectation of care and your father's diagnosis of a terminal condition. The suggested 50% to the wife and rest to the children may pass scrutiny. 

He definitely needs a will otherwise the whole estate would pass to your mother 

bobster2

Browntoa said:

I would think any will drawn up now is likely to fail the "deprivation of assets" test as it's being done now with full knowledge of your mums expectation of care and your father's diagnosis of a terminal condition. The suggested 50% to the wife and rest to the children may pass scrutiny. 

He definitely needs a will otherwise the whole estate would pass to your mother 

As noted above it's failure to make provision for family and dependants rather than "deprivation of assets". Different legislation but similar considerations.

"Deprivation of assets" is something someone does to themselves - intentionally reducing their own assets.