It’s no secret that there is a care crisis in the UK. In order to deliver social care, the Government is being forced to consider increasing Council Tax to help cover the costs. However, the cost facing the individual, should they require care, could be very high too.
If you have savings and assets worth more than £23,250 in England and Northern Ireland (rising to £24,000 in Wales or £26,250 in Scotland), or a weekly income high enough to cover care fees, then you will not be eligible for local authority funding. In other words, you’ll have to pay for your own care.
In order to reduce their care liabilities, older people may therefore look to giving away their assets to loved ones. However, where gifting is concerned, there are strict rules which must be followed.
Deliberate deprivation
It’s not easy to hide the fact that you may have tried to give your property away to your children or grandchildren. Local authorities will carry out a financial assessment, looking not only at your current assets, but also those that you have previously owned.
If they believe you have given away assets intentionally, in order to qualify for funding from the local authority, they may find that you have indulged in ‘deliberate deprivation’. This may include selling assets for less than their true value, as well as giving them away.
What makes it deliberate?
To determine whether the disposal of assets was deliberate, the local authority will look at a number of things. These include:
– what your apparent motive was
– the timing of the gift (i.e. the time between you realising you need care and when you disposed of the asset)
– the amount of assets involved; for example, they are less likely to investigate you if you give away £500 than if you are handing over £50,000.
If it is found that you have deliberately deprived yourself of those assets, even if you no longer own them, their value may be considered in the financial assessment. If the local authority does fund someone’s care costs, and later discover that the individual deliberately deprived themselves of assets, they can pursue that asset transferee in order to recover some of those care costs.
It’s not just during your life that you need to carefully plan how to hand your assets over to your loved ones. It is also vital to put together a plan for what happens after you die. This means ensuring you have a professionally drafted, valid Will in place. With important issues such as these, it pays to work with those who really know what they are doing. This is where we can help.
Heir Tight Wills helps clients understand the options for their Will & estate planning provisions, to ensure their assets go when, where and how they intend them to. For a FREE Consultation to discuss writing or updating your Will & estate planning provisions, contact Rachael Rodgers on 0845 519 7585, or CONTACT US via email.
