Can you protect your home from care fees?

If you need care in a care home, your local council carries out a financial assessment. In England, if your capital is above the upper limit, currently £23,250, you generally pay the full cost. Between that and a lower limit, currently £14,250, you contribute. Your home is counted if you are moving permanently into residential care, with exceptions, for example where a spouse or certain relatives still live there. These limits are set by government and can change, so check the current figures on gov.uk.

If a council decides that you gave away money or property in order to avoid care fees, it can treat you as still owning it. This is called deliberate deprivation of assets. There is no fixed time limit. What matters is why you did it, and whether care needs were foreseeable at the time. Transferring your home to your children when you are already unwell is a classic case that fails.

A Property Protection Trust is set up through your will. When the first partner dies, their share of the home is held in trust rather than passing outright to the survivor. That share can then be protected for the children, and it is not part of the survivor’s own assets. This also protects against “sideways disinheritance”, where the surviving partner remarries and the family home ends up with someone else’s family.

The planning has to be done for sensible reasons, early, and when care is not foreseeable. We will tell you honestly what a trust can and cannot do in your case.

The best time to plan is long before care is needed. If you want to talk it through, call us on 01332 215 151, or read about our Property Protection Trust and Asset Protection Trust services. This guide is general information, not legal advice.