Long Term Care
According to government figures we are generally living longer, but not all of us will live out our old age in good health; many of us will need some level of long term care.
Long term care doesn't come cheap. The average weekly cost for residential care in the UK is in excess of £380 and for private nursing care it is in excess of £550. While some state help is available, unless you need specialist care supplied by the NHS, funding is provided by your local authority and subject to means testing. If you have capital over £21,000 you won't receive any local authority funding.
Your Home
In many cases, an elderly persons main asset is the home they live in. Local authorities will insist that where no spouse, elderly relative or dependent individual lives with the person requiring care, the house forms part of the financial assessment to determine the liability for the payment of care fees.
After an initial period of 12 weeks the elderly person will have to use the value of their home in some form to pay for their Care Fees, with no support from the Local Authority.
Protecting Your Home
Many schemes, including giving your house away to your children are dangerous and, depending on the circumstances, unlikely to work.
One way of protecting your house from being used for care costs, and ensuring it passes to your children is to make use of our Protective Property Trust (PPT).
In brief our scheme works for couples who own their house jointly. We ensure that the property ownership is 'tenants in common' meaning that you own a specific share of the house, usually a half share. We then draft clauses within your Will to place your share of the house in 'trust' thereby giving your partner the right to live there for life. Upon your partners death your share of the house will pass to your children or any other person whom you have selected.
The PPT allows the surviving partner to move house if they wish to and does not restrict their lifestyle.
Should the survivor remarry then you can be sure that your share of the house will pass to your beneficiaries and not to the survivor's new spouse.
Importantly, if the surviving partner attracts any debts or commitments such as payment for their long term care, you can be sure that your share of the house is protected for your beneficiaries and cannot be used to settle such debts. The half share of the house that belongs to the elderly person in care is unlikely to be considered to have any great market value, if so the whole house will not be subject to the means testing and not used to fund Care Fees.
In Summary
Protecting your home for your loved ones is achievable. To find out more about our Protective Property Trust please contact us and we will be happy to forward you more information and to answer any questions you may have.
