full and final settlement offer rejected

fatbelly

It's not as easy as saying that they can legally 'go after' money that has been intentionally deprived (in their opinion)

They can certainly refuse to fund on that basis. But as things stand they are 'whistling in the wind' regarding your liability.

By all means ask CAB but I feel this would be beyond 99% of CAB volunteers and a solicitor is the way to go.

Lozald84

Brie said:

It's a fairly standard thing I'm afraid that if someone gives away their money and then depends on the council to pay for their care that they will come after the people who received that money.  No doubt your mom did what she considered a kindness in giving you money so that you could buy your home.  Unfortunately this is consider deprivation of assets and so they will go after the people who received the money to pay a short fall.  

Likely if your mom hadn't given you the money she would have had this in her savings and then not be eligible for council support to pay for her care. 

What you might manage to argue is that she was getting value for what she gave away.  I was told that this would be the case with us in that my MiL gave us money to let us buy a house where we could live with her and look after her.  In that way she was putting the money towards something that would keep her out of a care home longer than would otherwise be required.  Care homes are expensive and she would have burned through the money in about a year or so whereas she lived with us for nearly 5.  

Frankly I don't think it's a solicitor that is needed but someone like citizen's advice.  CA is at least free and they do sometimes have a legal expert should something more be required.  

Evening, thanks again for that/ Ive just done an online chat with them and im going to be calling them on monday as this is something they can help me with. 

Lozald84

fatbelly said:

It's not as easy as saying that they can legally 'go after' money that has been intentionally deprived (in their opinion)

They can certainly refuse to fund on that basis. But as things stand they are 'whistling in the wind' regarding your liability.

By all means ask CAB but I feel this would be beyond 99% of CAB volunteers and a solicitor is the way to go.

Evening

Thank you, ive got a solicitor looking at the deprivation side and ive just had a chat with CAB who have said that they can give me advice on the settlement. Its just getting so frustrating as social services keep changing what they will and wont accept. 

Rob5342

It aounds like it's an easy thing for social services to say when they want to get out of paying and a lot of people probably just pay up. I don't know how the law stands but I certainly wouldn't be paying anything until I had been through it all with a solicitor and was absolutely certain that they had a valid case against me. 

EssexHebridean

fatbelly said:

It's not as easy as saying that they can legally 'go after' money that has been intentionally deprived (in their opinion)

They can certainly refuse to fund on that basis. But as things stand they are 'whistling in the wind' regarding your liability.

By all means ask CAB but I feel this would be beyond 99% of CAB volunteers and a solicitor is the way to go.

Agreeing with fatbelly here - this needs a solicitor who specialises in the area not a general practitioner who would potentially be reading case law and interpreting it as they go along.  As said - nothing to lose by speaking to CAB, it will certainly buy you some time while you continue to pay a token amount. 

RAS

I'd suggest contacting Age UK. They certainly used to have a few legal advisors who gave basic advice over the phone. Not sure if the one I spoke to was employed or voluntary but they only did a day a week.

ManyWays

I agree that a solicitor is needed and a detailed timeline of when the money was given and your mum's financial situation at that point. Not the sort of thing to go into detail here as a letter from a solicitor (not free advice over the phone from one) may well make them back off. 

sourcrates

Never agree to pay someone else's debt just because a local authority tells you to do so.

The only way they can make you liable is by taking you to court and getting a judge to decide, until then its he said, she said, and means absolutely nothing legally.

And do not agree to a voluntary charge either.