Selling a house which is under consideration for care assessment

[johnburrage]

Hello

My father in law is currently being assessed under a section 2 order, and at some point we expect him to be released and he will need to go to a care home.

Assuming that we end up paying his financial status will be taken into consideration. At the moment that would include 50% of the house he owns with his wife. His wife still lives there so my understanding is that they can't touch that whilst she is still living there.

However, we would like to move Mum to nearer us, and find a home for dad in our area so it makes visiting and care for both easier, mum is in her 80s. But to do this we would want to sell their current house and buy a new one.

If we do to will his 50% still be available to us? Or will the LA consider it fair game to fund his care accommodation costs. I have power of attorney so can act on his behalf so I should be able to sell his house and then buy a new one in his name with no problem. But I am worried about what the LA will say in relation to how it affects his means testing.

Any advice.

 

[jenniferpa]

Hi, and welcome to Talking Point.

As you are obviously aware, this is a potential minefield and, to be honest, I don't think you're going to get a definitive answer. This is because in a situation like yours, it's all going to come down to how cooperative your parents LA are going to be.

Generally, if your mother sells the marital home, the LA will be in a position to state that 50% of the realised profits (after payment of any mortgages and costs to sell the property) are available to pay for your father's care. Having said that, CRAG (Charging for Residential Accommodation Guide) does say this



which is not to say the LA won't argue the toss about it.

Personally, I would be inclined to sell the property and buy the new property as soon as you can and I'm pretty risk averse. My reasoning is as follows.

1. The above mentioned passage from CRAG (which if you haven't already, you can download from here https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa...hment_data/file/301250/CRAG_34_April_2014.pdf)

2. It's a lot more difficult for a LA to argue over such a transaction when it's already done.

I'm really thinking (typing) out loud here and there may well be errors in my reasoning. But that's what I think.

I'm going to give further thought to what could/might happen (in terms of financial ramifications) though.

P.S. Sorry about the yellow highlighting - that was the search term I was using.

 

[jenniferpa]

I do have a couple of questions 1) is there any possibility that if you went ahead with the sale and purchase, the amount of money not put into the house would make him self-funding (as in, it would bring his total assets over £23250)? And 2) is it possible that he might be moved to a Section 3 (and thus eligible for 117 aftercare funding)?