Moses2013

Indeed that makes a big difference. This is for Northern Ireland but I would assume it's the same????
What happens if you're a home owner?



https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles...sing-home-fees

If you own your home, it may be counted as capital 12 weeks after you move into a residential care or nursing home on a permanent basis. However, your home won't be counted as capital if any of the following people still live there:

• your husband, wife, partner or civil partner
• a close relative who is 60 or over, or incapacitated
• a close relative under the age of 16 who you're legally liable to support
• your ex-husband, ex-wife, ex-civil partner or ex-partner if they are a lone parent

Your local Trust may choose not to count your home as capital in other circumstances - for example, if your carer lives there.

Shard

If the house belongs to your parents, and they need care, they need to sell it. Houses are assets (not "liquid assets" by the way) and have are currently the first source of funding care costs (down to 22K). It is not you paying care costs, it is your parents paying, as everyone else with some means does. If you have been in the UK 3 months plus you should be eligible for benefits?

Moses2013

Not a lawyer but what if the OP bought the house from the parents for 1 Euro?

Shard

It would be seen as a transaction aimed at unlawfully obtaining benefits, and if the parents then claimed care costs, they could be prosecuted for fraud.

Pulaski

If DayPerson wants to keep the house then they should buy it, getting their own mortgage presumably, and being careful to buy at a fair and full market/arms length price. Then "the family" can keep the house and it would simplify the mother's/parents' situation vis a vis paying for care and receiving benefits in the UK.

Shard

Doesn't sound like the OP will be able to obtain or service a mortgage. But if she could, that would give parents funds to pay for their care.

Shard

I had the impression that she was caring for her parents and unable to work?

Moses2013

But the house is not in the UK, so how can they determine the value. From what I know it is not illegal to sell a house under market value. Maybe the house has a market value of 50K, so even buying it for 10K would be an option. Of course it's also a moral question.

spouse of scouse

Based on my limited knowledge and the information the OP has given, here's my 2p worth. I'm just trying to bring a bit of clarity to the situation, and hopefully other posters can correct any points I get wrong (there's likely to be a few!)

Housing - much of this hinges on where in the UK the OP's parents choose to live. OP has said her parents would probably only get £100,000 for their house in France. It's certainly possible to buy much better than 'a rabbit hutch' in much of the Midlands and North of England for less than £100,000.

Benefits - UK citizens who have returned to live permanently and pass the habitual residence test do not have to wait 2 years for benefits, the wait to qualify is 3 months. As has been previously mentioned, it appears that the OP's parents holding onto their home in France may be the sticking point - in which case it needs to be sold.

If Dad bought himself and his wife a little place in an affordable part of the UK, both Mum and Dad would qualify for all benefits once it was deemed they were habitually resident in the UK. If Mum needed to be in a care home, the council would be obliged to fund this care. Dad could continue to live in the home. There would probably be a charge against the property, to be recovered when Mum and Dad passed away, but if that's what it takes for Mum to be looked after and Dad to get the income support he needs, then it appears to be a small price to pay and the only course of action possible.

If Mum was in a care home, the OP wouldn't need to be her carer anymore, thus freeing her up to look for work. If Mum didn't need a care home yet but has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, then there are allowances available for Mum and carer, plus council assistance for in home care.

After living in the UK since May, and with no property in another country, the OP should have well passed the HRT and be eligible to apply now for any benefit for which she qualifies.

Shard

They can sell the house at whatever price they want, but the council will make an assessment on whether the transaction was at fair market value and/or whether there was any attempt to under-report capital to them. The fact that it is overseas property is irrelevant.

Pulaski

This thread has raised a lot of forseeable issues, so many that it almost warrants being distilled into a wiki or a sticky and posted in the Spain and France forums.

- the risks of buying a house that may be unsaleable at any reasonable price, especially in an "emergency"
- tying up most of your tangible net worth in a house, especially one that is potentially unsaleable, and even more so if you don't have relatively substantial income during retirement, enough to pay for end of life care, or insurance or a nest egg to pay for care
- living long term in a country and not speaking the language, the consequences, especially later in life can be disturbing
- expecting to return to the UK when your health declines and expecting "the government" is going to willingly pick up the tab without setting some reasonable hurdles
- the idea that on returning to the UK you somehow expect "the government" to step up with housing and "benefits". ..... When you retired to Spain, France, etc. you didn't expect the Spanish or French government to find you housing and give you a cash hand out. Therefore morally you have no right to expect housing and benefits when you decide that it is financially advantageous to return to the UK for residential care paid for by "the government."

spouse of scouse

I don't the the rules around this in the UK, but certainly in Australia selling assets for less than their market value in order to be deemed eligible for income support payments is a big fat 'no'. With the amount of documentation involved there's no way to fake it either.

Shard

It's the same in the UK. It would have to be or everyone would do it.

Interestingly, if you recall before the election, Theresa May was proposing inheritance tax reforms which would have upped the capital you can keep threshold to 100K. Those policy ideas seemed to have fallen by the wayside, but there is some logic in it.

Pulaski

The threshold should be higher for those who take out end of life care insurance.

durham_lad

Unfortunately those products don't seem to be readily available in the UK which is part of the problem. (LTC insurance is easily available in the USA for sure.)