Mother s health deteriorating , shes now 83 , worried about fact that in time she may need care and

that may require her being put into nursing home or sheltered housing , my understanding being that other than

some £3000 this would have to be paid for out the sale of her house and any other money she may have in savings.

Is there anything that i can do as her son to prevent this happening ? It has been suggested to me

that she sell me the house for 1 pence and put her savings into my name ?

any advice gratefully accepted.

Hi I am NOT a financial advisor in any way but I am a nurse manager who deals with this all the time as part of my job. I am afraid you can't do what you are suggesting as the council would class this as your mum divesting herself. I strongly suggest you speak to someone at Age Concern or help the aged who can be very helpful. A lot of my elderly patients have 'put their house in order' through a solicitor. It may be worth you getting 'power of attourney' at this stage and different areas of the country do fund in different ways. I work in the Leeds area so am most familiar with that (I place people in care if necessary or arrange home care). There are different charges etc so I really would speak to age concern who give good help. Sorry thats as clear as mud but hopefully a financial wizz can come along and help you a bit more with the technical stuff. If I can be of any assistance on a nursing/caring/home ca\re front I would be glad to help. claire

Hi -- People who live in care/nursing homes are allowed the first £21,500 in savings I believe before they have to contribute to their costs, so that lower threshold of savings will always be allowed.

The rules on "deprivation of capital" will allow the local authority to legally claim that the house has been sold or disposed of undervalue and thereby reverse any transaction, where it has reasonable grounds to believe that any assets have been disposed of in order to avoid paying for the care needs, which were reasonably foreseen and expected.

You need to seek legal advice on this.

points noted, many thanks, much appreciated

The house cannot be sold to pay care fees if a relative of 60yrs + is living there. Assuming that relative has nowhere else to live. BB

---

Circumstances alters cases!!

In our area this aplies as well but only if the person has been living there for a significant time and not just moved in for the soe purpose of keeping the home. I am really not correcting as you give much better advice and have finaicial background its just that I had a patient whose relatives tried to do this and it wasn't allowed. Hope you don't mind me commenting. claire

Agreed Claire, I envisaged that a relative could already be living there and giving care.

---

Circumstances alters cases!!

ah so to summarise , if my mother is 83 years old and has lived in the house for over 40 years

and the only other place she could stay would be in my (sons) house , she has to sell her house to pay

for say a care home or nursing home apart from the first £21,500 she may have in savings (if she has that !!)

son

Daveco, if you mum does need care at home she is entitiled to attendance allowance. This is not based on someone's finances and is instead based on what care she needs. If you apply for this make sure you fill it in based on her worst day capabilities.If she unfortunatley has to go into a care home and she is what we call 'self-funding' then she is also entitiled to attnedance allowance at the high rate. Our council also allows 'deferred payment' if someone owns a property. Its ages since I've dealt with one in my job but it basically means you don't have to sell the property but the council holds the deeds (I think) and they pay the bills. This accrues as a non-interest debt until the date of death at which point interest starts being added. The last family I dealt with who did this had the house done up and rented it, saving the rent money in order to pay the bill when the time came. Hope some of that makes remote sense.

Hi Claire,

thanks for replies, Im thinking worst case scenario here that she needs constant and permanent care and supervision in a nursing home or sheltered housing . Surely the proceeds of the sale of her house go towards the care ?

OK this is the way we do it. We get a refferal for a patient who needs care. If they need placement we do a financial assessment with family or the patient. If the patient has over £21,500 in savings they are automatically self funding from the start. At this point I advise my patients and usually help them complete the form for attendance allowance. Once savings start dwindling to near the £21500 mark I suggext getting in touch with social services for a reassessment. If the patient has their own property and savings it is the same as above explanation. However, if the patient has a property to se but less than 21500 in savings I would still do a financial assessment here and you have 2 choices. Either the property is sold to pay for the care and the patient is self-funding and entitled to Attnedance allowance or you keep the property and do deffered payment as explained which is where the council pay for care but as a loan with no interest accrued until the patient is deceased at which point the council would contact you and let you know the balance outstanding. As I say not many people do this option but if it was appropriate you could rent the house to save the money for when the time comes that you need to pay the bill. In our area if savings are under (I think its) £12500 but there is a property that is going to be sold, then the council will pay a 12 week disreguard whereby an assessment will be made and she will receive a contribution from the council for the first 12 weeks along side a payment from her which usually accounts for most of her pension apart from a small weekly personal allowance. Does that lot make any sense? (Its the first time I have had to write it down normally I just explain face to face) claire

clairemac30:In our area this aplies as well but only if the person has been living there for a significant time and not just moved in for the soe purpose of keeping the home. I am really not correcting as you give much better advice and have finaicial background its just that I had a patient whose relatives tried to do this and it wasn't allowed. Hope you don't mind me commenting. claire

Not at all Claire -- I am glad you did, it's adds a human touch and another dimension to this complicated subject and your input is very interesting and welcome. I had to "scratt" around for information, when my Dad was admitted to a nursing home suffering from dementia, learning the ropes is difficult.

In additon to what BB mentioned above the house cannot be sold while a spouse resides at the property or a relative over 60 or a registered disabled person.

Yes Claire thats brilliant a great help and clears up matters

thanks

dave

Conmankiller, Strangely feel quite chuffed you have posted with a compliment as you seem to be a senior person on here and always come up with lots of great advise so thanks. To be honest its nice to be able to give a little bit of advice rather than take it all the time from complete finance who is a star. Its always good to repay a good turn. I am rubbish at most financial stuff (see my new husband new mortgage thread!!) but I am pretty good at nursing and care stuff there are just not many people who need any advice on here regarding those things. Daveco please let me know if I can help with anything else

Claire --- You're advice on here is just as important as everyone else, although you may not know or be able to advise on certain subjects you have proven that your advice in another field is invaluable.

That is what the true spirit of this forum is about, every person contributing when they feel able or want to help.