separating mum and dad's income?

[snowygirl]

So I have posted quite a few times recently as dad has just gone into a care home and I'm really grateful for the advice that I have been given. I am now moving onto the finances in all this as I am about to pay the first care home bill and basically I'm making sure I know exactly where I am with everything.
Dad is self funding and will be for around the first 18 months of his care if everything remains as it is. This is based on my dads assets in his personal accounts and ISA's but excluding his house as mum is still living there. In addition to accounts in his own name mum and dad have a joint account to which my dad's income from personal pension, state pension and AA makes up about 75% of the money coming in as mum has a small state pension and AA and that's all.
I'm sure I read a thread here once where someone was penalised when her husband's assets fell to below the £23,000(he was in a home) threshold because the household bills for the house in which she was still living had been coming out of the joint account and the LA wouldn't fund the care home until her husband's assets fell to below 18,000. My question is then should I 'freeze' this one and only joint account and now separate my dad's assets from my mum's so that all the household bills come from mums account alone?

I'm looking ahead I know but I just dont know how ruthless the LA can be and with both parents with dementia I need to keep on top of things from the start. Many thanks for your help.

 

[Saffie]

I am the person you mentioned but I would hesitate to offer you advice on this as other LAs might be more generous than mine.
As I was my husband's Deputy, I was worried that I had done something dreadful so I rang the OPG when I was penalised by the LA but they said it was fine for the joint account to be paying the utility bills, even when my husband was in the NH, despite the bulk of the income there being my his. However, they weren't the ones supplementing the fees, the LA were and they though differently!

People are advised here to separate joint accounts when one goes into a home anyway but I wouldn't freeze it. When the LA start to supplement the fees, your mother will be able to keep half your father's private pension bbut that will of course have to be used for all bills then.

I hope others will come here to advise. Otherwise perhaps a call to CAB or even the SS might help. Best of luck.

 

[snowygirl]

I am the person you mentioned but I would hesitate to offer you advice on this as other LAs might be more generous than mine.
As I was my husband's Deputy, I was worried that I had done something dreadful so I rang the OPG when I was penalised by the LA but they said it was fine for the joint account to be paying the utility bills, even when my husband was in the NH, despite the bulk of the income there being my his. However, they weren't the ones supplementing the fees, the LA were and they though differently!

People are advised here to separate joint accounts when one goes into a home anyway but I wouldn't freeze it. When the LA start to supplement the fees, your mother will be able to keep half your father's private pension bbut that will of course have to be used for all bills then.

I hope others will come here to advise. Otherwise perhaps a call to CAB or even the SS might help. Best of luck.

Thank you Saffie I had kept your post in a favourites folder on my computer but something went wrong and I lost everything!!
I wont actually freeze the account but I think I will redirect dad's income now into another account so that I can show that we did think about separating their assets. Its really going to be all swings and roundabouts for us though, with mum having dementia too, possibly the time will come to approach the LA about her as well one day so their money may as well be in a big pot!!
Thanks for your help.

 

[arielsmelody]

I don't have any experience in this area so I may be wrong, but I was worried that if you divert all of your dad's personal plus state pension into a different account, you might be leaving your mum short. I thought that she would be entitled to half of his personal pension? If that's right, I'd make sure their money is separated on that basis, to make sure it's fair to her as well - then the household bills could come out of your mum's money including her share of your dad's pension.

 

[snowygirl]

I don't have any experience in this area so I may be wrong, but I was worried that if you divert all of your dad's personal plus state pension into a different account, you might be leaving your mum short. I thought that she would be entitled to half of his personal pension? If that's right, I'd make sure their money is separated on that basis, to make sure it's fair to her as well - then the household bills could come out of your mum's money including her share of your dad's pension.

Yes that's something to think about thank you Arielsmelody