Paying for care home advice

[Kjn]

Hi
I'm just trying to understand how this all works, as yet dad isn't in need of this ..but.. It may come some day.
Parents own the family home, been there 50yrs, dad has work pension coming in and his state, some isa that I know of, money kept aside for his care now. They would be self funding, would mum need to sell the house to pay for his ongoing care or is there any help towards it after a certain point/amount etc.
My gran went into care but had nothing , so mum and sister had to fund it, I'm new to all this so just some simple understanding of what ifs I'm trying to figure out.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[jenniferpa]

If your mother remained in the marital home then she absolutely wouldn't have to sell it. It's disregarded for the purposes of calculating care contributions.

If your father (apart from the house) has assets of over approx £24K he would be self-funding. Anything less and the LA contributes. 50% of his occupational pension can be passed back to your mother if he has LA funding. The rest plus his state pension would be used to offset the LA funding.

Have a look at this http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=2710

 

[Kjn]

Great thanks Jennifer, very helpful. It looks like whether mum can afford to keep house going if dads savings,work pension and state is taken for his care as mum only on half state.
Many thanks. Hopefully won't come to this but having the information helps.

 

[loveahug]

If your mum's income is quite low, once dad goes into care, then she should be assessed for pension credit.

 

[Saffie]

If your mum's income is quite low, once dad goes into care, then she should be assessed for pension credit.

Kjn's mother would be entitled to receive half her husband's occupational pension.
The LA financial assessor suggested that I forego this and apply for pension credit instead as I was only receiving a married woman's portion of the state pension plus a very, very low teacher's pension of around £100 a month.
She worked it out that it would be a little less but as I would not have to pay council tax, it would be better.
This went against the grain as we have never received benefits but also it is means tested and as I have some saving( praise be!) it would have worked out less than she had said. As it was those I managed simply because of those savings.

Be wary of suggesting your mother should move to a smaller house, Knj, as once the house is sold, the LA would regard half the amount received as your father's capital. The LA can use their discretion and allow some of this to be used with your mother's half to purchase another house but it is not automatic.

I hope you will not ever need all this information.

p.s. apologies as I said income but meant capital. I've now altered it.

 

[Kjn]

Thanks loveahug

Saffie I'd never suggest mum move, I think she is just concerned as I only gets half state pension herself like mil due to break etc having kids and not a formal pension herself.
Ideally keeping them both in that bungalow would be best, the garden is mums sanity, large but we can help with that and everything else. If they did have to move I'd rather they came here to us. As you say hopefully none of this will be required.
I didn't realise that re dads pension. It's a minefield out there unless you know.
Thank you all for help