Inheritance tax

elsien

OP, just noticed that you say she has had CHC funding for two years. CHC should be reviewed at least annually and unless your mother has capacity around the assessment and doesn’t want you to be part of it then you should’ve been involved in that. 
A quick way of checking is to ask the care home where the funding is coming from. 

Having said that, it’s not unknown for CHC to forget to tell the local authority that CHC  funding has been reduced or ended. Either way a letter would have been sent to either her or a representative giving the outcome of any assessment

I have a client who is no longer eligible for any CHC funding (they were just getting the FNC top up ) as of 12 months ago but CHC they are still paying it despite me contacting them three times to ask for the formal outcome of the assessment which has never been sent. I’ve also contacted the local authority to let them know. They are also ignoring this. 

I am now working on the basis that I’ve given everyoneenough warning, any error is down to them and the person has no money to pay it back anyway. The local authority and CHC can argue it out amongst themselves when the penny finally drops. Obviously I’m not power-of-attorney so don’t have the same level of responsibility.

bobster2

elsien said:

it’s not possible though for her to be fully funded by the council and to be in full receipt of CHC funding covering all care needs because these are two separate systems.

Yes - absolutely.

OP wrote in an earlier post "Her care home is fully funded by the local council" which is why I suspect she's just getting the FNC component of CHC.

emilyboxer

poseidon1 said:

OP does your mother live in Scotland where there is a far more generous provision for personal and nursing care ( paid by the Scottish Government), compared to England which most forumites are familiar with?

They have difficulty understanding how it is possible for your mum to be eligible for free social care but have £9000 per year she can gift from her small pension given she has no savings as such, unless of course she is some how able to accumulate the bulk of her pension ( unspent) annually.

As for IHT, from what you say she has no estate ( her pensions will die with her) so no IHT concerns at all.

I was advised by the council that mum qualified for CHC funding due to her health and financial position.

She was receiving housing benefit prior to her admission to, and subsequent, transfer from a hospital - where she had received a mental health, and auzheimer diagnosis.

She transfered to a nursing home, and since then has continued receiving her pensions.

I queried her receipt of attendance allowance when I obtained power of attorney, which ceased. I have been waiting for three months + for any outcome/repayment process.

She lives in England, where CHC is awarded, and I have requested copies of the CHC funding agreement which will hopefully shed more light on the situation.

Now I'm concerned!!!

emilyboxer

Keep_pedalling said:

If this gifting is being done by the attorney then this an abuse of their authority and could see them land in big trouble with the OPG. 

Big trouble with the OPG, I do hope not!
This is my mother's choice-please do not infer abuse on my behalf....

That is deeply offending.

emilyboxer

elsien said:

it’s not possible though for her to be fully funded by the council and to be in full receipt of CHC funding covering all care needs because these are two separate systems.

If there is any element of local authority social care funding, then her income and private pension would be taken into account and she would most likely need to pay the majority of that towards her care unless her private pension is more than the care home feet.

I would strongly suggest the OP gets clarification as to who is paying what and what still needs to be resolved before donating any gifts to anyone else.

Depending  on how long Mum has been in the care home for, it may be that the local authority haven’t carried out the financial assessment yet. In my area they were about six months behind. The OP does not want to end up with a large bill on their mother’s behalf. 

Mum was receiving housing benefit prior to her admission to, and subsequent, transfer from a hospital - where she had received a mental health, and auzheimer diagnosis.
She transfered to a nursing home, and since then has continued receiving her pensions approx 3 years.

Her auzheimer symptoms have responded well to medications, but, she sadly remains with a mental health condition which requires continued company to avoid neglecting herself.

I queried her receipt of attendance allowance when I obtained power of attorney, which ceased. I have been waiting for three months +  for any outcome/repayment process.
 
I have requested copies of the CHC funding agreement which will hopefully shed more light on the situation as she wishes to continue gifting and I'm concerned that the funding system has not been applied correctly/fully. 

Any advice ??

Keep_pedalling

emilyboxer said:

Keep_pedalling said:

If this gifting is being done by the attorney then this an abuse of their authority and could see them land in big trouble with the OPG. 

Big trouble with the OPG, I do hope not!
This is my mother's choice-please do not infer abuse on my behalf....

That is deeply offending.

Sorry I did not mean to offend, but I did say if, not that you actually were. 

As this is what your mother is choosing to do then the potencial problem here though is that she has no savings and this could end up being classed as deliberate deprivation of assets as she may very well need this money in the future if the financing situation changes. 

emilyboxer

Keep_pedalling said:

emilyboxer said:

Keep_pedalling said:

If this gifting is being done by the attorney then this an abuse of their authority and could see them land in big trouble with the OPG. 

Big trouble with the OPG, I do hope not!
This is my mother's choice-please do not infer abuse on my behalf....

That is deeply offending.

Sorry I did not mean to offend, but I did say if, not that you actually were. 

As this is what your mother is choosing to do then the potencial problem here though is that she has no savings and this could end up being classed as deliberate deprivation of assets as she may very well need this money in the future if the financing situation changes. 

I think it would be wise for me to advise her to cease any gifting, apart from birthdays until I can obtain accurate information related to her funding status.
I have applied for a copy of her CHC award.
I will also meet with the care home .anger to see if I can obtain information on her review assessment and qualifying status.

I wish I wasn't her POA, so much responsibility in checking the work of other people......
I am a nurse and if I made such errors, oversights in my work,  I'd be sacked very quickly !!

Spendless

Your Mum's AA was stopped? I think Im correct in believing that someone can not receive AA if the council starts paying for their care. 

Just seen bobster2 referred to this in an earlier post

If someone is in a care home - they cannot receive Attendance Allowance and full CHC. Attendance Allowance will stop following the CHC award. 

I wonder if somewhere along the line its not been realised your Mum is still receiving her pensions in full  or there's been a delay in the financial assessment from the council as previously suggested by others.   .

Emily - well at least you've become aware to look into things further  even if it wasn't the original question you were asking. Not all council staff know all the ins and outs of funding. I've said on here before my Mum was incorrectly told she needed to pay 3rd party top ups when she wanted my Nan to go into a certain care home whereas she didn't as Nan was a self funder. It did turn out to be a blessing in disguise cos Nan lived for a further 8 years dying shortly before she was 99 and the more expensive care home would have eaten up her money a lot sooner and then potentially she might have had to move when her dementia had advanced.  

bobster2

emilyboxer said:

Mum was receiving housing benefit prior to her admission to, and subsequent, transfer from a hospital - where she had received a mental health, and auzheimer diagnosis.
She transfered to a nursing home, and since then has continued receiving her pensions approx 3 years.

Her auzheimer symptoms have responded well to medications, but, she sadly remains with a mental health condition which requires continued company to avoid neglecting herself.

If she needs 24 hour supervision paid for by CHC due to a mental health condition - it is very hard to see how she could have capacity to make gifts. The threshold for full CHC for mental health problems is very high. If she is at such extreme risk of neglecting herself and her needs that she gets CHC - how can she be deemed to have capacity to give away a significant portion of her income?? When she has no savings. That is arguably neglecting her future needs.

Small customary gifts might be different - if there was a pre-existing pattern and they were small relative to savings. But you said she had no savings at all.

emilyboxer said:

I queried her receipt of attendance allowance when I obtained power of attorney, which ceased. I have been waiting for three months +  for any outcome/repayment process.

If she has full CHC this is correct - AA should stop.

emilyboxer

Spendless said:

Your Mum's AA was stopped? I think Im correct in believing that someone can not receive AA if the council starts paying for their care. My Nan lost hers which must have been when she fell below having  £23250 and only was required to contribute to her care home fees rather than paying them in full from her own money.

I wonder if somewhere along the line its not been realised your Mum is still receiving her pensions in full.

I contacted the DWP to query her receipt of AA, 3 months ago when I began checking mums finances.
It has stopped being paid, and is "being looked in to" ... I have not heard anything back from them...
No one seems very interested that she may be being overfunded etc, but I am!!