Care home and selling home

housebuyer143

Sorry if this is in the wrong place, I couldn't find a category for it. 

I need some advice for my mum. 
My nan has to go into a care home but she currently owns her house with her half worth about £200k. The other half was left to my mum in my grandads will as they were tenants in common. 

She has no cash savings so with the sale of the house it will fund the private care home she is going into for about 3 years. 

Is there anyway to get help from the government to share this cost? What happens when the money runs out, will the government step in and move her to another care home? 

My mum just wants to ensure she is getting everything her mum is entitled to and obviously £67k a year for a care home is a lot. She called social services who were not interested in providing help or advice and now my nan is in hospital until such time as they can resolve her living situation.

Flugelhorn

she will be expected to fund the care home from the money in her half of the house until she has a specific amount left - I think it is 23K, after that the council will fund her up to their stated limit - if this is not as much as the cost of the home she is in then sometimes families pay the top up or the council offer a cheaper home - there is some info here https://www.carehome.co.uk/advice/who-pays-for-a-care-home-when-the-money-runs-out

Skiddaw1

OP, it sounds like a difficult situation for you all.

There's various things your nan may well be entitled to (including NHS Continuing Healthcare and Attendance Allowance for example). I'd really recommend you/your mum start by contacting Age Concern. They're generally really clued up on these sorts of situations and I am sure can give you the information you need and point you in the right direction.

Flugelhorn

Good idea of @Skiddaw1 re age concern and yes they can help advise re any other benefits she may have. continuing care is variable but good if you can get it 

Skiddaw1

Flugelhorn said:

Good idea of @Skiddaw1 re age concern and yes they can help advise re any other benefits she may have. continuing care is variable but good if you can get it 

Thanks @Flugelhorn - I used to recommend Age Concern to many of my clients as they're generally spot on with this sort of thing. I know what you mean about continuing care- we had to jump through a few hoops in my father's case but we got there in the end.

Good luck OP.

p00hsticks

On a slightly different topic - does your nan still have capacity to make her own decisions ? And if not does anyone have PoA (health & welfare and/or financial) to act on her behalf ?  If the answer to both is no, then I think someone will need to apply for permission to get the house sold.  

One the house has sold then it could be worth looking into how much your nans half of the proceeds would buy as an 'immediate needs annuity' - this is where you exchange a lump sum in return for a monthly sum of money for life, which could potentially ensure that she does not run out of funds for the care home.

And definitely get help from somewhere like age concern or adult social services to put in a claim for attendance allowance ASAP. 

Albermarle

What happens when the money runs out, will the government step in and move her to another care home? 
All social care issues are the responsibility of your local authority, not the government. Your responsible LA maybe will be the county council, or unitary authority, or metropolitan borough etc It will vary from area to area. 
If the money runs out, they may fund her where she is already is, or they may want to move her to a cheaper home. It is not all about cost, in some areas there is restricted availability as well.
There maybe  some possibility for the LA and the family to jointly fund a more expensive home.

It is a bit morbid but most care home residents are not there that long term, especially if they are very elderly, but of course you never know.

jsh99

housebuyer143 said:

The other half was left to my mum in my grandads will as they were tenants in common. 

She has no cash savings so with the sale of the house it will fund the private care home she is going into for about 3 years. 

She called social services who were not interested in providing help or advice and now my nan is in hospital until such time as they can resolve her living situation.

Sorry you are having to resolve this difficult situation.

Do check your grandfathers will - is it possible your nan has a 'immediate post-death interest (IPDI)' in the property?  Depending on the wording this might mean that when the house is sold your mums half of the money has to be invested to give your nan an income for life.  

I fund this out as this is what my mum had done in her will for my brother - I cannot access my half of the house as the money had to be invested to give my brother an income until he passes away.  Only at that point can I have the money but in the meantime any interest goes towards his care.

My brother is paying for his own care at the moment with his half - and we did get a visit from the council from a nice lady who said if he wanted to move to another home she could send me a list of homes or if he wanted to go back home (before we sold) she could give me a list of care companies who might be able to help.  But  we would need to arrange all this ourselves. 

I know you say it's a way off yet but one thing she did advise was to not wait until we hit the £23,250 left in his account but contact them when there was approx 3 months care fees above that - because it can take 3 months to sort out with social services what happens next.  

housebuyer143

jsh99 said:

housebuyer143 said:

The other half was left to my mum in my grandads will as they were tenants in common. 

She has no cash savings so with the sale of the house it will fund the private care home she is going into for about 3 years. 

She called social services who were not interested in providing help or advice and now my nan is in hospital until such time as they can resolve her living situation.

Sorry you are having to resolve this difficult situation.

Do check your grandfathers will - is it possible your nan has a 'immediate post-death interest (IPDI)' in the property?  Depending on the wording this might mean that when the house is sold your mums half of the money has to be invested to give your nan an income for life.  

I fund this out as this is what my mum had done in her will for my brother - I cannot access my half of the house as the money had to be invested to give my brother an income until he passes away.  Only at that point can I have the money but in the meantime any interest goes towards his care.

My brother is paying for his own care at the moment with his half - and we did get a visit from the council from a nice lady who said if he wanted to move to another home she could send me a list of homes or if he wanted to go back home (before we sold) she could give me a list of care companies who might be able to help.  But  we would need to arrange all this ourselves. 

I know you say it's a way off yet but one thing she did advise was to not wait until we hit the £23,250 left in his account but contact them when there was approx 3 months care fees above that - because it can take 3 months to sort out with social services what happens next.  

Thank you. My mum has mentioned something about being unable to get her money from my grandads share until my nan dies, so I wonder if something like that is in the will. 

Appreciate the help from everyone and I'll feed it back to my mum. She has PoA both financial and health I believe which is making stuff easier because my nan really is away with the fairies at this point. 

tooldle

Does Nan have any pension income? If so, the house funds will stretch a bit further, especially with the addition of attendance allowance.