Help Please

critchley

Not sure if this is where to put this but can't find a category that covers it.

My partner is 75 and in hospital at the moment and it has been decided that he can't come home due to his ongoing care needs and me being 80, not in great health myself and unable to look after him mainly due to him being immobile now.  We have been together for 40 years but never married.

We have about £28k in a joint account from which all bills and outgoings are paid.   At the meeting to discuss him going into a care home I was told that it will be treated as half each even though he is the main contributor to it.  Also that he won't have to pay anything as it's below the amount where he would be expected to pay.

Apparently it will take a month or so to get him admitted somewhere.

My first question is am I still allowed to use the joint account for paying utilities and household things until he actually goes into a home or should the money be divided into his and her accounts straight away?

Secondly, he is due to inherit something like £50-60,000 from his deceased brother's estate after the sale of a property which is nearly at exchange of contracts.  Am I right in thinking that all this will be classed as his money (not put into the joint account as was planned) and that he will then be liable to fund his care?

Thirdly, although our flat is in joint names he also owns another flat in this same house which is in his sole name in which my grandson and his partner have lived for 13 years.  They used to pay us rent but hit a sticky patch and have been living rent free for some time, just paying the utilities and keeping it maintained as we didn't want strangers there and it's been good to know that help was at hand during my partner's time at home when he had a few falls.

Could my partner be forced the sell the downstairs property if/when the money runs out, thus making my grandson and his fiance homeless?

Thanks for any information somebody can give me as it's going round and round in my head at what is already a stressful time, knowing he won't be coming home.

El_Torro

Sounds like quite a pickle, sorry that you find yourself in this situation. 

You might not get many knowledgeable answers on this particular forum, we mainly discuss pensions here. I think this topic is more suited to the Benefits board. No need to create a new thread there, you can ask a moderator to move it.

Currently you need to fund your own care if you have more than £23,250 in assets. With the £14k he has in a joint account plus the inheritance that is on its way plus the flat he owns separately it sounds like he is going to be expected to fund his care, at least until the money runs out. 

I suspect that he will definitely have to sell the flat that he owns outright, possibly the half of the flat you live in too. I don't want to speculate too much though, hopefully someone more knowledgeable than me can confirm.


EDIT: I've just asked for the thread to be moved.

Marcon

critchley said:

Not sure if this is where to put this but can't find a category that covers it.

My partner is 75 and in hospital at the moment and it has been decided that he can't come home due to his ongoing care needs and me being 80, not in great health myself and unable to look after him mainly due to him being immobile now.  We have been together for 40 years but never married.

We have about £28k in a joint account from which all bills and outgoings are paid.   At the meeting to discuss him going into a care home I was told that it will be treated as half each even though he is the main contributor to it.  Also that he won't have to pay anything as it's below the amount where he would be expected to pay.

Apparently it will take a month or so to get him admitted somewhere.

My first question is am I still allowed to use the joint account for paying utilities and household things until he actually goes into a home or should the money be divided into his and her accounts straight away?

Secondly, he is due to inherit something like £50-60,000 from his deceased brother's estate after the sale of a property which is nearly at exchange of contracts.  Am I right in thinking that all this will be classed as his money (not put into the joint account as was planned) and that he will then be liable to fund his care?

Thirdly, although our flat is in joint names he also owns another flat in this same house which is in his sole name in which my grandson and his partner have lived for 13 years.  They used to pay us rent but hit a sticky patch and have been living rent free for some time, just paying the utilities and keeping it maintained as we didn't want strangers there and it's been good to know that help was at hand during my partner's time at home when he had a few falls.

Could my partner be forced the sell the downstairs property if/when the money runs out, thus making my grandson and his fiance homeless?

Thanks for any information somebody can give me as it's going round and round in my head at what is already a stressful time, knowing he won't be coming home.

What a truly horrible time for you.

This gives clear, factual information which is likely to help with some of your questions: https://www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/care/paying-for-care/paying-for-a-care-home/deprivation-of-assets/

elsien

You haven’t commented on his capacity and whether this has been affected by his health.
If he loses capacity around his finances and there is no power-of-attorney in place, then someone is going to need to apply for deputyship in order to access his bank accounts and deal with his finances. Which is not a quick process.

If he is still able to do a power of attorney, I would strongly advise him to do so while he still can. It will save a world of pain in the future. 

With regards to the joint account, again it comes down to his capacity around finances. Banks can freeze joint accounts where someone has lost capacity, because they can no longer monitor what is happening with it. 

If he’s able to, now would probably be a good time to close the joint account and split the money between you, to save complications in the future. 

No, he won’t have to sell the flat that you live in as suggested above. It will be disregarded because you as his partner are living there. 

Yes, it’s possible that your grandson will have to move out at some point in the future because although your partners savings are below the capital threshold, the second flat is an asset as well in the financial assessment.  There may be information about that in the age UK link posted above, but I don’t think it meets the criteria to be disregarded. To be honest, though they can’t expect to live rent-free forever, can they?

Keep_pedalling

The other property he owned will be taken into account for the financial assessment, so he will be self funding and that flat will probably need to be sold. His inheritance will be entirely his and will also fall in the financial assessment but at least that may delay the sale of the flat for a while.

Does he have a will in place?
Dies he have lasting powers of attorney in place? 
Does he still have mental capacity?
Do you know how you jointly own the flat as tenants in common or joint tenants?

The other issue you may face is inheritance tax if he dies leaving more than £325k in his estate, so if he still has the mental capacity to do so marriage or forming a civil partnership could be something you should do.