care home fees

seven-day-weekend

Yes Margaret, my sister's house was wholly in her husband's name. (She is 15 years older than me).

Fortunately she has now had it changed to hers since he died.

My husband acquired an ex-council property from his mother, this was solely in his name (she signed it over to him, not to me). We changed it to both names prior to us selling it for CGT purposes.

EdInvestor

margaretclare wrote: »

Every time someone on here asks this question it worries me a bit. The OP says they're over 60 (he and wife). We're over 70. Should we be worrying about it?

I don't think you need to really.From what I know of your circs, if one of you needed care, the house would be disregarded as the other would still be living in it. There would therefore not be enough money from just the pension to self fund, so the council would pay the shortfall between pension and fees.

Assuming the first partner dies and the remaining partner subsequently needs care. Depending a bit on how the equity release loan has worked out and how much pension income is inherited, there may be enough equity left in the house to buy a care annuity and thus self fund. This is always IMHO desirable as it gives you control over where you live.

In addition I gather you have no hangups about kids' inheritances.Many people think it's a 'waste of money' to self fund, and prefer to leave money to their kids, but of course it's also not appropriate for taxpayers to fund family inheritances..

I do however have quite a lot of sympathy with couples who have a very modest home (say worth c.100k) and only small pensions. Self funding will wipe them out completely at even a low-end care home and the strong likelihood is they will end up sharing a room with a council- funded resident whose fees are lower.

It's not nice to think that people who have tried hard and achieved some modest success in life should end their days in a fog of bitterness and resentment due to the way the system works.

There's a real need for attention to this area of the system, near where benefits kick in.It's counterproductive in many different areas including pensions where people at the bottom end are penalised for saving. The fuss over the 10p band is a related issue as well.The issue has the potential to be seriously damaging to the Government IMHO

daveyft

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

Also please bear in mind that if you rely totally on the Local Authoruty to pay your care home fees, then you will have no element of choice over where you go.

Not true. My wife has just arranged a care home for her mother. She was able to view many homes and eventually select a specific room in a specific home despite the fact that it is totally funded by the local authority.

seven-day-weekend

daveyft wrote: »

Not true. My wife has just arranged a care home for her mother. She was able to view many homes and eventually select a specific room in a specific home despite the fact that it is totally funded by the local authority.

Well that is good news for your m-i-l. I expect it varies throughout the country as there is not much choice at all in some authorities.

daveyft

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

I expect it varies throughout the country

Yes probably so. I think it also has something to do with how pushy you are. The LA's initial stance was that they would select the home and sort it out but my wife told them "no way" and they backed down straight away.

bryanb

daveyft wrote: »

Yes probably so. I think it also has something to do with how pushy you are. The LA's initial stance was that they would select the home and sort it out but my wife told them "no way" and they backed down straight away.

Selected a home for mother in 2005, local authority didn't want to be involved, they said we should find a vacancy and let them know (Oxfordshire)

atush

dunstonh wrote: »

Property into tenants in common and a discretionary will trust written and investments placed into investment bond and provided neither of you need care within the next few years and nowhere is it documented that you did it for that purpose then you should be fine.

Apart from it is documented here lol.

McKneff

How on earth did you drag this one out, the original post and the rest is 2 and a half years old:eek:

atush

Because it is easy when you are trolling here for business. Report them, I just did.

Couldn't help but reply to Dunstoh though lol.

dunstonh

ahh, the spam was removed and you look like the one that dragged it up. Lets blame atush