5 Assets the Council Can't Count for Care Home Fees — Most Families Pay Anyway

Robert Retires UK

Robert Retires UK

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Care home fees now average £1,298 a week for residential care and £1,535 for nursing care. Many families assume they must sell the house and hand over their savings to pay them, but the means test has exceptions written into the law. In this video I go through 5 assets the council isn't allowed to count, or must value fairly, when it decides who pays for a care home, including the rule (number 3) that can keep the whole family home out of the assessment.
I'm Robert. I make these videos so UK families don't lose money to rules nobody explains.
In this video:
• How the care home means test works, and the £23,250 and £14,250 limits
• #1 — The first £14,250 the council can't touch, and why self-funders overpay after their savings drop below £23,250
• #2 — Personal possessions: jewellery, furniture, paintings and heirlooms
• #3 — The family home: when a spouse, a relative over 60, a disabled relative or a child under 18 lives there, it isn't counted. Also the 12-week disregard and deferred payment agreements
• #4 — Life insurance surrender values and investment bonds with life cover
• #5 — Your share of a jointly owned home, valued at what a "willing buyer" would pay
• Deprivation of assets: the rule with no time limit that can undo all of this
• NHS Continuing Healthcare: the assessment to ask for first
⚠️ General information for England, not financial or legal advice. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have different rules and limits. The relative must have lived in the home before the person went into care. Deliberately reducing assets to avoid fees can be treated as deprivation of assets. Get advice from Age UK, Age Cymru, Age Scotland, Age NI or a specialist later-life adviser before acting.
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