Nursing fees and Care Home Fees


Mackrell and Thomas – Nursing Care and Care Home Fees Advice

Do you worry all your assets may be used up to pay for care fees, leaving nothing to pass on to your children. 

Nursing care and care home fees are expensive and the costs are rising. An estimated one in five elderly people will need some type of nursing care. 

It is not possible to just give away assets or transfer property to someone else, in an attempt to avoid care fees. This is known as a “deprivation of assets” and it will not avoid the need to pay care fees.

The problem

If a couple owns a  property jointly and a husband died first, the property will pass to a wife as the surviving joint owner and the whole value of the property will be taken into account to pay for future care fees.

The solution

Mackrell and Thomas can change the ownership of your property, so that you own it as “tenants in common” rather than owning it jointly. This will allow you to pass your half share of property to your children, under a Will Trust, rather than it passing to the survivor automatically. 

This means that if a husband dies first and the surviving wife needs future care, then the husband’s share of property passes to the children and so only the wife’s half share will be taken into account for the assessment of care fees. 

This change cannot be taken when there is an immediate foreseeable need for care or if the only motive for the change is to avoid paying care fees. There  has to be another reason for making the change otherwise it will be treated as a deliberate deprivation of assets.

The earlier that expert  legal advice is taken on this issue,  the more likely that some of your assets can be ring fenced and protected from falling into the hands of the local authority to pay for care. 

Contact  Mackrell and Thomas on 0151 341 7999 or use our Contact Form for advice.