Selling the family home to pay for care.

parkgate

I have received very useful advice from this forum in the past.

This is a fairly fundamental question.

My disabled mother is trying to settle in a flat attached to my property in an attempt to live independently.

However she is becoming increasingly frail and struggling to cope on this basis ,although we are supporting her as much as we can.

It is apparent that she may have to move into a residential care home.

We  have visited a few in the area,all have a waiting lists and costs can vary between £950 to £1,200 per week.She has savings in excess of £23,250 but they would soon fall below this level at the rates quoted.

She also owns the family home which is currently empty and we are looking at the options of either selling it or renting it out to help pay for the fees.She has a small monthly company pension and the state pension but they would not even cover a weeks fees.

I understood from the wording in the Conservative 2019 manifesto ,as part of the three point plan on social care “the prerequisite of any solution will be a guarantee that no one needing care has to sell their home to pay for it”.The wording in bold is as displayed in the manifesto.

Reading generally I am unclear what this policy proposal means and what progress as a Government they have actually made.

So, in the instance of an elderly person seeking to spend the rest of their life in a residential care home ,who owns a house and has savings ,I am unsure whether the house comes into the equation ,and therefore excluded from a financial assessment.

I would also like to assume that she will not suffer the loss of the home by a requirement to place a loan or charge on the property, such as a deferred sale or equity release ,which would involve the eventual sale of the home.

But my assumptions may be ill founded!

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Ross_Alumni

Hi @parkgate

Thanks for your post, sorry to hear that your mother is struggling so much however it's great to see how much you want to help her. 

I don't have much knowledge in this area so I hope that others will be able to advise, I just wanted to ask if your mum has had a needs assessment at all through the local authority? To see if she can be supported with daily tasks and mobility.

parkgate

Ross,

Thank you for your prompt reply.

I have spoken to the doctor and he has referred her to a “social prescriber” I have no experience of the services they offer but reading on the Internet I have seen very positive reviews.

The local authority have recommended that we employ private carers to make sure she is at least eating properly but there is currently a shortage of carers.

Kind Regards,