Care homes/support with and without own home

Russinating

Russinating

Russinating

Soldato
Joined
27 Dec 2005
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Bristol
A friend's mum and grandma (and therefore the extended family) are in a pretty tricky situation and having never had any family in care homes I couldn't be of any help at all.

Basically the grandma has dementia, diagnosed, not to the extent that she can't remember who people are but often forgets where she is, gets names mixed up, can't tell the time, forgets where toilets are etc, which also leads to accidents and falls if left unsupervised for anything more than 5 minutes.

The mum lives with her but for reasons aside is unable to look after her, and herself isn't living with her for 2-4 weeks so the grandma is with the friend's sister.

To make matters worse the grandma's home was flooded in recent flash floods and it'll be 6 months+ of repairs and they're in temporary accommodation (a flat) for the time being provided by the insurance company. Unsure if that's relevant but obviously it's a spanner in terms of selling the property, and it seems to be degrading the grandma's dementia.

Now as far as the friend's research has led to is that there's no Gov-provided care home support/assistance if you own your own home. But the grandma can't sell her house to fund a care home because then the mum would effectively be homeless. Assume that she can't work/rent her own flat/support herself for the purposes of this question.

What options are there? Can the grandma sell/transfer her house to the mum, ensuring she has a home whilst then qualifying herself for care home support? Selling the home and using some to fund a care home and some to buy a smaller flat for the mum was one of my thoughts but care homes don't come cheap and although she's 85 is in otherwise fair physical health for her age and could easily have another decade under her belt.

Anyone have any experience of placing their elderly family in a care home with Government support (or self-funded) and any advice to share at all?
 
Here's one for you to think about.

24/7 home care. My mum was in a very similar situation and we tried the care/residential homes for her but it just didn't work. No matter what they tell you, I don't think any of them are particularly good, often the inmates are just left to get on with it by themselves and get very little actual care.

We ended up with a care agency who provided 24/7 live in carers. They started off doing two week shifts but then we found one who was happy to stay for a month at a time, take a week off and then go back. It was all managed by the agency so we didn't have to faff about recruiting the carer. It worked perfectly well for about eighteen months before mum died. I think that she only paid about 30% of the actual cost because the rest was covered by various council contributions. Effectively her income from pensions etc covered the amount she had to pay.

Mum was much happier being at home than she ever was in a care/residential home.
 
Does the grandma`s daughter (friends mum?) does she own the grandma`s house with her? S Sounds like they need the adult social services/elderly mental health teams involved.

There are council care homes if someone cannot pay themselves. But as others have said, these do not tend to be the greatest.

However, in answer to the I think question.

The grandma owns her own home, so either that can be used to pay for the care home fees or the property is in trust therefore they cannot touch it for care home fees. Therefore Grandma has no other way of paying for care home.

But basically, if friends mum doesnt own the Grandmas house i dont think the fact she has no nowhere to live would come into it? (That sounds way meaner than intended.)

I am so sorry if this doesnt make sense. Its kinda hard to explain what I am trying to say.
 
Russinating said:
No, house is wholly owned by the grandma.
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Sounds like that house should`ve gone into trust a long time ago with daughter.

So, if the daughter would be essentially homeless because she cant have her own flat or work?

It really does seem that friend needs to get social services involved etc becuase it does as you say, sound a complex situation.

But essentially, you could see if they could start the process to put Grandma`s house in trust with daughter named too (thus stopping them using house to try and pay for carehome) but I will warn now. that process is currently taking 18 months +. (Covid apparently)

But in answer to other part of question, it sounds like its not that they cant go into a carehome, its the family dont want to sell the house to pay for carehome fees? but that is only way as as creul as it sounds, the daughter has no ownership to that house, so on this occasion, I am unsure if friends mum has any wiggle room. :( (guessing doesnt currently help the house is flooded. :()
 
If someone else is permanently resident in a home (even if they don’t own it) then the home sale cannot be forced. If someone can prove residence long term then they can’t be forced to be made homeless.

My wife manages care homes and has exactly this scenario with a son living in his mother’s home (10+ years) who needed to go into care. The council had to fund her care and the home was left alone until such time as the son left it.

This scenario is entirely dependent on how long the mum has lived there. The longer the better to retain the property. If it’s months they may declare it differently.
 
ShadowMan said:
If someone else is permanently resident in a home (even if they don’t own it) then the home sale cannot be forced. If someone can prove residence long term then they can’t be forced to be made homeless.

My wife manages care homes and has exactly this scenario with a son living in his mother’s home (10+ years) who needed to go into care. The council had to fund her care and the home was left alone until such time as the son left it.

This scenario is entirely dependent on how long the mum has lived there. The longer the better to retain the property. If it’s months they may declare it differently.
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I thought there may be something like this! Well done :).

My quick googling failed me today.
Yes you`re right the longer they have lived there the better.
 
ShadowMan said:
If someone else is permanently resident in a home (even if they don’t own it) then the home sale cannot be forced. If someone can prove residence long term then they can’t be forced to be made homeless.

My wife manages care homes and has exactly this scenario with a son living in his mother’s home (10+ years) who needed to go into care. The council had to fund her care and the home was left alone until such time as the son left it.

This scenario is entirely dependent on how long the mum has lived there. The longer the better to retain the property. If it’s months they may declare it differently.
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IIRC this is especially true if the person that lives there is a close relation and disabled in any way.

It turns out someone may have had a flash of insight into how much it costs to provide care for one person and assistance with getting another person housed compared to letting the second person continue to live in the property they've been living in for years (especially if that property has been adapted for them).

We had to look into it when my mother went into a home as my dad was worried about it.
 
ShadowMan said:
If someone else is permanently resident in a home (even if they don’t own it) then the home sale cannot be forced. If someone can prove residence long term then they can’t be forced to be made homeless.
Click to expand...

Interesting, thanks. The mum has lived there for at least 5 years and has her own mental health issues, hence the incapacity to care full time.
 
Suggest contacting Adult Social Care duty team for advice in first instance to gain access to social services and a social worker if you don’t have one already assigned to start looking at options. (Local contacts on websites for county). 5 years is a long time but not huge so not sure where that would land but I would hope it would be sufficient especially if she has her own challenges.
 
As above person said, as have I. But your best bet really is adult social services/or adult mental health team for support and advice. Not from a bunch of us random internet peoples. :)
 
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