parents estate

[coskermike]

Hi There.
My parents are in their late sixties and own their own home out right. My dad has had new hips and suffers from back pain but apart from that they are basically both doing ok. I hear stories where elderly people in the same position as my parent s become to ill to look after themselves but because their estate is worth more than X amount the authorities wont fund the health care so either the house is sold and the health care is then basically funded from that sale or the house is just taken away from them and then the authorities pay for the health care?? I am told though, that if the estate is signed over to their children a certain amount of time before any health issues occur then the authorities cannot touch the estate ?? is this true and if so how do we go about protecting the estate. I am not raising this question to protect any sort of inheritance purely to protect what my parents have worked all those years to have.
Many thanks
mike

[AMYSULLIVAN]

Hi Chas2008

With regard to the £50,000 cap the last thing I saw was it was going to be at least 2014 before anything will be done.
I do have great sympathy with some of the children I know.
In one case the daughter got early retirement / redundancy at 56 and she could have got another job at the time.
She did however care for her mother for 5 years almost relying on the mothers house to make up some of her lost earnings / pension.
The mother became unmanageable and he house had to be sold to pay the fees.
Her mother is still in the care home after nearly 3 years.
As Matin said it is probably best to split the house into a Tennants in Common ownership so at least half the house would be secure.
In another case I know of a situation where the mother passed away and the father got took into a care home 3 weeks after it happened and each half of the house was willed to the daughter.
As probate had not been obtained at the time Social Services said none of the house belonged to the daughter and it was all available for fees.
She got a solicitor involved and this was found to be incorrect and she got her half of the house.

Amy