Would dad have to pay for care if we sold our houses and bought a larger one to live in together?

Bbook

My elderly father has cancer and needs care which I am just about managing to provide at the moment. He lives alone currently and has no savings. I know if he received financial help for home carers, it would have to be repaid after his death from the sale of his home. However, if both he and I sold up and we bought a larger house together where I could help to care for him, would I then have to sell the new house after his death?

Brie

First correction for you - if your dad is living in his own home and needs carer's to come supplied by the council or the NHS or another public agency he would not have to pay for that.  If he has private carers then they will likely need to be paid regularly while they are providing care.  If he has no assets then you would need to pay for this presumably.  Is he in receipt of attendance allowance as that might help if he needs additional private care particularly for personal things that you might be uncomfortable helping with.  Talk to someone at Marie Curie as this is their speciality and do wonders.

As for buying a house together....
We were in a slightly similar situation when MiL was widowed at 91.  She couldn't manage on her own so we agreed to sell her flat, sell our house and find a place where she could live with us.  In order to do this a portion of her proceeds from the sale of her flat would pay for our shared house.

To do this she needed to gift us the money which needed to be documented through the solicitor.  IHT wasn't a problem as she didn't have much other than the actual flat.

So house was in mine and OH's names only.  So far so good.  Some time after moving in she had a fall and went into hospital (a whole litany of disaster after disaster) and then we were told she was good enough to come out of hospital but not well enough to come home yet as an occupational assessment needed to be done to ensure our home met her needs.  We were told outright she should go into the care home temporarily and that it wouldn't cost her a penny.  This was from someone from the council.  So she was moved and made wonderful progress and after a couple of months was ready to come home to us.  

At that point we were told she owed £4k for care home fees.  When we argued this they said it was because she had deprived herself of assets by giving us money to buy the shared home and the only reason they hadn't asked for the money sooner was because they couldn't make us homeless as I was myself over 60.  But they would be a lien on the home so they would get their share eventually.  Now I'm told this is not standard with all councils but it might be a question to ask - assuming you can find someone who knows and won't lie about it.  In the end we got the charge cancelled by getting our councillor involved and advised him of all the errors the NHS had made that led to MiL's long stay as well as the incorrect info given to us and MiL initially by the council saying it wouldn't cost a penny.  

So my advice is to talk to a solicitor so it's very clear as to what you are doing and why.  Ensure that the house is in your name at a minimum but if possible put dad's name on the title deeds too so that he can't be seen to have deprived himself of funds.  You might want to ensure that his share of the house comes to you when he finally passes so there's no further disruption for you at a difficult time.  (assuming there's no siblings that would object)

Keep_pedalling

While he is living in his home his house would not be included in a financial assessment for home visits only his income and savings.

if you purchased a house together and used the entire proceeds of his sale that may count as deliberate deprivation of assets in some circumstances. I would however be more worried about what could go wrong during the sales and purchase process. If for instance his health gets worse and he needs residential care before the house is sold, or he dies and everything gets stuck with the probate process. This could cause major issues if it happened between exchange and completion.

is he getting any financial help at the moment such as attendance allowance or pension credit?

Bbook

No nothing like that. He hasn’t been ill for very long. It has all been very sudden.

elsien

Brie said:

First correction for you - if your dad is living in his own home and needs carer's to come supplied by the council or the NHS or another public agency he would not have to pay for that.  If he has private carers then they will likely need to be paid regularly while they are providing care.  If he has no assets then you would need to pay for this presumably.  Is he in receipt of attendance allowance as that might help if he needs additional private care particularly for personal things that you might be uncomfortable helping with.  Talk to someone at Marie Curie as this is their speciality and do wonders.

As for buying a house together....
We were in a slightly similar situation when MiL was widowed at 91.  She couldn't manage on her own so we agreed to sell her flat, sell our house and find a place where she could live with us.  In order to do this a portion of her proceeds from the sale of her flat would pay for our shared house.

To do this she needed to gift us the money which needed to be documented through the solicitor.  IHT wasn't a problem as she didn't have much other than the actual flat.

So house was in mine and OH's names only.  So far so good.  Some time after moving in she had a fall and went into hospital (a whole litany of disaster after disaster) and then we were told she was good enough to come out of hospital but not well enough to come home yet as an occupational assessment needed to be done to ensure our home met her needs.  We were told outright she should go into the care home temporarily and that it wouldn't cost her a penny.  This was from someone from the council.  So she was moved and made wonderful progress and after a couple of months was ready to come home to us.  

At that point we were told she owed £4k for care home fees.  When we argued this they said it was because she had deprived herself of assets by giving us money to buy the shared home and the only reason they hadn't asked for the money sooner was because they couldn't make us homeless as I was myself over 60.  But they would be a lien on the home so they would get their share eventually.  Now I'm told this is not standard with all councils but it might be a question to ask - assuming you can find someone who knows and won't lie about it.  In the end we got the charge cancelled by getting our councillor involved and advised him of all the errors the NHS had made that led to MiL's long stay as well as the incorrect info given to us and MiL initially by the council saying it wouldn't cost a penny.  

So my advice is to talk to a solicitor so it's very clear as to what you are doing and why.  Ensure that the house is in your name at a minimum but if possible put dad's name on the title deeds too so that he can't be seen to have deprived himself of funds.  You might want to ensure that his share of the house comes to you when he finally passes so there's no further disruption for you at a difficult time.  (assuming there's no siblings that would object)

Another correction for you. There would still be a financial assessment for care at home provided by the local authority, but the property would be disregarded. So it’s not right to state that all local authority care at home is free. It will still be means tested. 

Is there a power-of-attorney in place because if not that’s something he should really think about now before he gets too ill. 

In the future you  might also want to look at if/when   CHC fast track funding might be relevant, depending on the diagnosis and prognosis. Sorry, it’s not very nice to have to think about, but it’s an option that you should be aware of if it’s ever needed. 

https://continuing-healthcare.co.uk/continuing-healthcare-guidance/continuing-healthcare-fast-track-guidance/#:~:text=is%20utterly%20irrelevant.-,Continuing%20healthcare%20fast%2Dtrack%20funding%20is%20an%20entirely%20separate%20form,be%20entering%20a%20terminal%20phase.

youth_leader

My MIL received help from Macmillan nurses - are you in contact with any organisations of that nature?

Emotional, financial and physical help for people with cancer | Macmillan Cancer Support

 I'm sorry, when I put Marie Curie just now I hadn't realised they were for terminal diagnoses.