We'd like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum. This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are - or become - political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.
We're aware that dates on the Forum are not currently showing correctly. Please bear with us while we get this fixed, and see Site feedback for updates.

Joint account or not to protect savings if one of us is in a home

My wife and I have the house in both our names and our bank accounts. I'm older than her and she's concerned that if I end up in a home that our joint savings will be assessed for contributions.

Therefore she's suggesting that she open a separate account in her own name only. I'm ok with that, just want to confirm that it's the right thing to do moneywise?

thanks
«13

Comments

  • p00hsticks
    p00hsticks Posts: 13,954 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    You'd need to be confident that it would be you and not her ending up in a home or it could work against you. 

    Personally, assuming that at least half of the joint savings have been contributed by you, in your shoes I'd be more annoyed that my spouses priority is to try to keep money for themselves rather than to ensure that you have the best available care if it should be needed. 
  • elsien
    elsien Posts: 35,083 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited 27 July 2023 am31 11:40AM
    Generally speaking in a financial assessment money in the joint account is presumed to belong equally to both unless there is evidence to show otherwise. So only half would be counted towards the cost of any care.
    however, it may not hurt for her to have an account in her own name as well.
     Because unless you have a power-of-attorney in place then if one of you loses capacity then legally speaking, the joint account should be frozen to protect the person who can no longer monitor it for themselves. 
    So if neither of you have power-of-attorney, you might want to put that on your to do list as well. 
    All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.

    Pedant alert - it's could have, not could of.
  • NedS
    NedS Posts: 4,076 Forumite
    Fifth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    If you end up in a care home, only your half of your joint savings would be assessed for your care costs. How much joint savings do you have? Does it exceed the threshold above which you are expected to pay for your care?
    If you move all your joint assets into your wife's name and then require care, the local authority may view that as deprivation of capital and you may be required to pay anyway. Councils are pretty hot on this when they perform their financial assessments.

  • westv
    westv Posts: 6,324 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I was under the impression that the £16k limit for savings (or whatever it is now) was in total and not a separate amount for each spouse.
  • najan49
    najan49 Posts: 84 Forumite
    Third Anniversary 10 Posts Name Dropper
    NedS said:
    If you end up in a care home, only your half of your joint savings would be assessed for your care costs. How much joint savings do you have? Does it exceed the threshold above which you are expected to pay for your care?
    If you move all your joint assets into your wife's name and then require care, the local authority may view that as deprivation of capital and you may be required to pay anyway. Councils are pretty hot on this when they perform their financial assessments.

    Of course the other risk is that the savings are transferred into the wife’s name and then she’s the one that needs care and the OP is left without.
  • najan49
    najan49 Posts: 84 Forumite
    Third Anniversary 10 Posts Name Dropper
    westv said:
    I was under the impression that the £16k limit for savings (or whatever it is now) was in total and not a separate amount for each spouse.
    My mum has about £30k in an ISA and my dad has about £15k in his. My dad moved into residential care recently and my mother’s assets were not considered during his financial assessment.
  • elsien
    elsien Posts: 35,083 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    westv said:
    I was under the impression that the £16k limit for savings (or whatever it is now) was in total and not a separate amount for each spouse.
    There's a difference between a savings limit for any benefits and assets for financial assessments, which are assessed individually.
    Paying for permanent residential care | Paying for a care home | Age UK
    All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.

    Pedant alert - it's could have, not could of.
  • You'd need to be confident that it would be you and not her ending up in a home or it could work against you. 

    Personally, assuming that at least half of the joint savings have been contributed by you, in your shoes I'd be more annoyed that my spouses priority is to try to keep money for themselves rather than to ensure that you have the best available care if it should be needed. 
    That's not the intent. Neither of us want to her to lose out financially if I'm in a home. The assumption is that it won't impact my care. I'll get the care anyway, and a proportion of my savings would be taken as a contribution to the cost. 
  • westv
    westv Posts: 6,324 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    NedS said:
    If you end up in a care home, only your half of your joint savings would be assessed for your care costs. How much joint savings do you have? Does it exceed the threshold above which you are expected to pay for your care?
    If you move all your joint assets into your wife's name and then require care, the local authority may view that as deprivation of capital and you may be required to pay anyway. Councils are pretty hot on this when they perform their financial assessments.

    Surely transfers between spouses can't be classified as deprivation of assets? I'm sure most couples would class savings as belonging to both parties despite which account name it might be in.
  • xylophone
    xylophone Posts: 45,426 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Surely transfers between spouses can't be classified as deprivation of assets? 

    If Mr Smith chose to transfer all his assets to Mrs Smith as soon as it became apparent that he was about to be assessed on his contribution to residential care, "deprivation of assets" could be a consideration?

    That said, I would have thought that the spouse left in the marital home would be entitled to reasonable provision?

    Suppose for example that all savings were held by one party who had always paid for household maintenance/holidays/ dentistry etc and this could be proven by reference to past history?



Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 348.3K Banking & Borrowing
  • 252.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 452.4K Spending & Discounts
  • 240.9K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 617.2K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 175.7K Life & Family
  • 254.1K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16K Discuss & Feedback
  • 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.