Selling family home to pay for care?

[Remy]

Could someone please advise -my father has dementia, my mother wants to downsize to a small flat. This will release quite a substantial amount of equity. Will this be taken into account when my father has to go into permanent care? Also, at present he has a care package at home but will this be reassessed if the family home is sold and equity released?
Thank you

 

[canary]

Hello @Remy and welcome to DTP

Im afraid that the answer to both your questions is yes. The equity released from the house has to be divided equally between your parents (assuming that they both own the property), so his share of the equity from the property will be taken into account when he has a financial assessment. Unless his share of the equity plus his savings ( half of any joint ones) are still less than £25,000 this will take him into the self-funded bracket. If the Local Authority are paying towards his care package then this will cease once the funds are released.

You do have to balance this against smaller running costs for a small flat, plus you get a greater choice of care homes and more flexibility if you are self-funding

 

[Remy]

Hello @Remy and welcome to DTP

Im afraid that the answer to both your questions is yes. The equity released from the house has to be divided equally between your parents (assuming that they both own the property), so his share of the equity from the property will be taken into account when he has a financial assessment. Unless his share of the equity plus his savings ( half of any joint ones) are still less than £25,000 this will take him into the self-funded bracket. If the Local Authority are paying towards his care package then this will cease once the funds are released.

You do have to balance this against smaller running costs for a small flat, plus you get a greater choice of care homes and more flexibility if you are self-funding

Thank you for such a quick response