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Paying for care: local authorities disregard the value of a home that is still occupied by a spouse. Photograph: Alamy
Paying for care: local authorities disregard the value of a home that is still occupied by a spouse. Photograph: Alamy

Should the proceeds of a property sale be used to pay for care home care?

This article is more than 6 years old

My parents-in-law might move nearer us, but one of them requires nursing home care and we don’t know the rules around paying for it

Q My parents-in-law live in a town about 50 minutes away from my husband and I. My father-in-law requires nursing care in a home, and as they have assets in excess of the £23,500 limit they will have to pay for his nursing home care.

I thought one way around the distance we would have to travel regularly to support them both, would be to have him admitted to a home near us, and for my mother-in-law to sell up and buy a property near to us as well.

My question is: could they use all of the proceeds of the house sale to buy nearer us? Or would half the value of the house they jointly own have to be used prior to my mother-in-law’s death as part of assets used to pay for care? EI

A In England and Northern Ireland you become a self-funder of care costs in 2017-18 if you are assessed as having assets of more than £23,250 (rather than the £23,500 that you mention). These limits are a more generous £26,250 in Scotland and £30,000 in Wales. It is the case in the whole of the UK – and so definitely in your father-in-law’s case – that local authorities disregard from their means test the value of a home that is still occupied by a spouse, civil partner or unmarried partner who called the property home.

The disregard also applies if, when you go into a care home, the property you are moving out of is still occupied by a relative or member of your family who is aged 60 or over; a lone parent who is your estranged or divorced partner; your child if aged under 18; or by someone who is incapacitated. The disregard remains in place for as long as the spouse or partner carries on living in the home.

If a spouse or partner decides to move, once the property is sold the disregard ends. In theory, the share of the sale proceeds of the person in care can then be taken into account when assessing eligibility for help with care costs. In practice, statutory guidance states that local authorities can disregard the proceeds from the sale of the home if they are being used to help the spouse or partner of the person in care to downsize.

So if your mother-in-law were to sell up and buy somewhere near you, she should be able to use the full amount that the house is sold for. You can find more
detailed information on the rules in Age UK Factsheet 38: Property and paying for residential care (PDF), and Factsheet 39: Paying for care in a care home if you have a partner.

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