Property disregard - care fees

Vianirone7

Does the ongoing ( not just 12 week) property disregard given because qualifying relative lives in the house as only home ever have to be re paid ? 

For example the property is disregarded for say a year then sadly death occurs and the relative living in the property inherits the property and sells it and moves on. Are any of the care fees repayable ever in such a situation please ? 

elsien

No. Property is disregarded for as long as the person is in care and the qualifying relative still lives there. There won’t be any backdated charges.

Vianirone7

If the qualifying relative sold own home to move in and care for sick elderly parent the disregard applies I understand . What if the relative still has the funds to be able to afford to buy their own home again but cannot because of the need to care full time ? 

Would the disregard still apply? 

What if that relative bought a home but still cannot occupy it and has to rent it out to afford to live whilst caring and living full time at elderly parents property where the relative is on electoral roll and pays utilities ? 

Does the disregard mean the cost of care fees are completely and permanently met by the local authority or does the disregard simply mean the fees won’t be taken from the elderly parents property until they die but are then re claimed from the estate ?

thanks if anyone can educate me on this  

elsien

Vianirone7 said:

If the qualifying relative sold own home to move in and care for sick elderly parent the disregard applies I understand . What if the relative still has the funds to be able to afford to buy their own home again but cannot because of the need to care full time ? 

Would the disregard still apply? 

What if that relative bought a home but still cannot occupy it and has to rent it out to afford to live whilst caring and living full time at elderly parents property where the relative is on electoral roll and pays utilities ? 

Does the disregard mean the cost of care fees are completely and permanently met by the local authority or does the disregard simply mean the fees won’t be taken from the elderly parents property until they die but are then re claimed from the estate ?

thanks if anyone can educate me on this  

No, it means the property is permanently disregarded unless the qualifying person moves out but any/all assets will be taken into account in the financial means test.
As per my previous answer, if the property is disregarded it will not later be reclaimed from the estate.

There are mandatory disregards, which I presumed that you were referring to. and then there are circumstances which are slightly less clear (for example, someone having their own home elsewhere), which the local authority would make on a case by case basis.
It doesn’t matter how much money the caring relative has, that is irrelevant. What matters is the circumstances and the timing of when they moved in.

I’m beginning to think that your circumstances may fall into the discretionary criteria in which case, no one can give you a definitive answer at this stage. 

However, if you buy a house and rent it out when you’re living with the person who needs care, it’s not an unreasonable expectation that a deferred charge could be put on the persons house and you could move back into your own property when the caring role is no longer needed. But that’s my interpretation, and I’m not a financial assessor. 

 Full details in here if you scroll down to the property disregard section.

https://www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/age-uk/documents/factsheets/fs38_property_and_paying_for_residential_care_fcs.pdf

Vianirone7

Thank you