Financial assessment (means test) for social care

shiggy69

Hello All,
My elderly mother currently has approximately £31,000 in savings which puts her over the threshold of £23,250 for the council to pay towards her health/social care which she now needs due to age/dementia, but she has a mortgage of £37,000, if she pays say £15,000 off her mortgage this will mean her savings will be £16,000 taking her below the £23,250. 
Will the Council Assessment officer see this as having reduced her wealth on purpose, and might stop her getting any type of financial help or because she is paying off some debt it would be ok?
Any help truly appreciated.
Shiggy

KxMx

IMO deliberate deprevation of capital. 

It's being considered to purposefully bring down her capital to a level where the LA has to pay.

There is no good reason to suddenly make a mortgage payment many many times larger than the previous repayment schedule. 

Especially as she now knows she needs care. 

elsien

If you look on her local authority website then they should have information on there about their charging policy because it can differ between areas although the basics are the same but it will depend on the individual circumstances. 
What were her plans for paying the mortgage moving forwards before any need for care arose? Do you or anyone else have financial power of attorney for her?

As an example my council says:

We will need to decide if you have deliberately deprived yourself of capital. When making this decision we consider: • The timing of the disposal; and • Reasons for disposal Examples of where a person has deprived themselves of capital: • A lump-sum payment has been made to someone else (e.g. as a gift or to repay a debt) • Substantial expenditure has been incurred (e.g. on an expensive holiday) • The title deeds of a property have been transferred to someone else • Money has been put into a trust which cannot be revoked • Money has been converted into another form which would fall to be disregarded (e.g. personal possessions) • Capital has been reduced by living extravagantly (e.g. gambling or following a much higher standard of living than the resident could normally afford) • Capital has been used to purchase an investment bond with life insurance

Mortgage doesn't come into that list (although it is not exhaustive and could be covered by "money converted into another form which would fall to be disregarded) however if she was not planning to repay the mortgage in full until the care cost question  arose then that is likely to have them asking why  now? So any background is likely to be relevant here.

sheramber

Will the house need to be sold to fund her care?

elsien

I was presuming at the moment the OP is talking about domiciliary care. 

Keep_pedalling

elsien said:

I was presuming at the moment the OP is talking about domiciliary care. 

I think the OP needs to clarify what sort of care package we are talking about. If she pays down the bulk of her mortgage then it will increase her disposable income so it might not make much of a difference in how much she would need to contribute to domiciliary care.

Does she live alone? Is she claiming attendance allowance? Do you have financial LPA for her?

born_again

shiggy69 said:

Hello All,
My elderly mother currently has approximately £31,000 in savings which puts her over the threshold of £23,250 for the council to pay towards her health/social care which she now needs due to age/dementia, but she has a mortgage of £37,000, if she pays say £15,000 off her mortgage this will mean her savings will be £16,000 taking her below the £23,250. 
Will the Council Assessment officer see this as having reduced her wealth on purpose, and might stop her getting any type of financial help or because she is paying off some debt it would be ok?
Any help truly appreciated.
Shiggy

What sort of care are you talking about?
Carers coming to her house, or having to go into a care home.

shiggy69

Many thanks for the responses so far.

The idea is she is going to stay in her own home for the moment and get home care while she can, then when needed go into a nursing home and sell the house.

Does she live alone? Yes
Is she claiming attendance allowance? Not yet but we have been made aware to claim this.
Do you have financial LPA for her? Yes

many thanks 

Keep_pedalling

shiggy69 said:

Many thanks for the responses so far.

The idea is she is going to stay in her own home for the moment and get home care while she can, then when needed go into a nursing home and sell the house.

Does she live alone? Yes
Is she claiming attendance allowance? Not yet but we have been made aware to claim this.
Do you have financial LPA for her? Yes

many thanks 

The LPA is going to make things far easier for you as time goes on. I would not delay in getting AA sorted out, it is not  means tested so there is no reason.

Is the mortgage interest only or repayment? 

tetrarch

In your position, I would contact the mortgage company and offer to increase the mortgage payments. As a regular monthly mortgage payment it would likely not be noticed by any asset deprivation overseers

Regards

Tet

elmer

I do these assessments, and certainly would notice and query an increase in a mortgage payment, I would need to document it for my senior assessor, who would also ask why if I hadn’t.