Protecting your Property from Care Home Fees
In Northern Ireland, deliberately reducing your assets to avoid care home fees, known as deprivation of assets, is not a viable strategy and can lead to the Health and Social Care Trust still assessing those assets as if you still owned them. It is crucial to understand that attempting to avoid care fees by gifting assets or transferring ownership can be investigated and potentially reversed by the Trust. You however legitimately plan to reduce the impact of your or your partners care home fees on your children’s inheritance.
What is deprivation of assets?
Deprivation of assets occurs when someone intentionally reduces their assets, such as money or property, to lower their financial contribution to care home fees.
Why is it not a good idea?
- Trust investigation: Health and Social Care Trusts in Northern Ireland have the power to investigate transfers of assets and may treat them as if they still belonged to the person needing care.
- Potential for fees to be assessed anyway: If the Trust determines that assets were given away deliberately to avoid care fees, they may still calculate fees based on those assets.
- Risks to the recipient of the gift: Gifting assets may also have tax implications for the recipient.
What are the legal implications?
- No time limit on investigations: The Trust can investigate transfers of assets regardless of how long ago they occurred.
- Possible legal action: In some cases, the Trust may pursue legal action to recover care fees, potentially even from the recipient of the gift.
What are the alternatives?
- Seek legal advice: If you are concerned about care home fees, it’s crucial to seek legal advice from a solicitor specialising in this area.
- Consider a Will Trust: If you own your home with your partner, you can consider creating a Will Trust to protect a share of the property from care home fees when one partner dies.
- Explore other funding options: There are various other options for funding care, such as local authority support, charitable assistance, or deferred payment agreements.
- Understand the means test: familiarise yourself with the process of the means test, which determines how much you will be expected to contribute to your care.
- Plan ahead: discuss your options with a specialist solicitor well in advance of needing care.
Care home fees in Northern Ireland are now in the region of £50,000 per annum. They destroy family wealth accumulated over a lifetime. If you are retired and your home represents a significant part of your wealth that you hope to pass to your children, you should have a Trust Will which is a legitimate way to protect half their home from care home fees.