Plan for care fees with ease
In a recent piece in the BH&HPA journal we explained the importance of succession planning to include making a Will and considering the need to obtain a Power of Attorney. As part of planning for the future it is also important to consider how, if you or your partner needed to live in a care home, those care fees would be paid.
This is especially important when you consider that the annual cost of care in a nursing home (in the north of England) typically exceeds £35,000 per person, so it’s well worth taking the time to plan, in case these fees ever have to be paid.
When someone is in nursing or residential care and has capital assets of less than £23,250, they can apply to their local authority for a means-tested contribution towards the care fees. This does not mean, however, that assets can be handed over to the children in order to qualify for funding.
So what are the current rules?
- The local authority will check whether assets have been deliberately given away (or sold at an undervalue) in order to qualify for funding.
- This would constitute ‘deliberate deprivation’ and the local authority would then carry out the means-testing as if those assets had not been given away, meaning that you probably wouldn’t be eligible for funding.
- There is no time limit as to how far back the authority can go to review any such gifts.
- The system for paying care fees, and for state funding towards care fees, is due to change in 2016. Means testing will still be part of the procedure however, so care fee planning still needs to be a vital part of every park owner’s succession planning strategy.
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