Capitol and Income

[Juglas]

Hi i am looking for some advice my Mother has been in a care home since 2014, she has been self funding. She has now reached the stage where her capitol is down to £23,000, so i contacted the local authority to take over. In the meantime she had pension, private pension and attendance allowance go in to her current account, so the local authority said this put her over the £23,500 threshold so she must still pay full fees. My argument is that her pensions etc is income and not capitol so should not be taken into account when initiating proceedings, after all they will take it out as part of her fees anyway. Age concern agreed with me, but the local authority is insisting that the pensions etc added to her capitol makes her over the threshold so must still pay full fees. Who is right?

 

[Kevinl]

Hi Juglas, welcome to TP
The moment the money hits your mum's account it is capital whatever the source, as soon as she owns the money it's capital.
All my capital was originally income so how can you differentiate between the two?
I made the mistake of paying a sum of money into a joint account with my wife, instantly half of all this inheritance became hers and counted in a financial assessment, if I'd paid it into an account in my name only it would have been all mine.
Capital is an owned assets, income Is capital in the pipeline once you get the income it becomes capital as you are the owner of the money.
Annex B & C of the Mandatory Guidance Notes to the 2014 Care Act cover the treatment of capital and income and all income becomes capital except for certain benefits as listed in the guidance notes. See link below.
K

https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...ce/care-and-support-statutory-guidance#AnnexB

 

[nellbelles]

Hello and welcome to TP @Juglas
I don’t know the answer to your question personally but I wonder if you would benefit from a talk to the Alzheimer’s help line

https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/get-s...5.1282197276.1537783722-1370286491.1335957541

 

[Beate]

I agree with Kevinl, it's all capital so you'll have to wait until the entire amount in her account is below the threshold when monthly payments are in for them to start paying anything. However, if the amount is close to the threshold, they should really check out what happens once she is under it - will they continue to pay the fees for her current home of will they look for a possibly cheaper one? It's not fair to you to leave it all to the last minute.

 

[Jessbow]

You accumulate capital from income- from whatever source.

Once its yours, its yours...…. and it counts