Local Authority View on Deliberate Deprivation of Assets

In years gone by many people believed that there was an unwritten understanding that you could gift away your savings and property to your family or other beneficiaries and it would, therefore, place these assets outside of your means test for paying for long term care. Many families with elderly relatives believed that if assets were passed over a certain length of time ago is would fall outside of the means test conducted by the Local Authority and therefore leave them with nothing to cover paying for care so their local authority would pick up the cost.

In reality, though the Local Authorities were wise to these tactics and they would investigate where an elderly person’s assets had gone and more importantly the reason for their disposal. The deliberate deprivation of your assets is illegal to avoid paying for care.

However, the law is understanding in that it appreciates that people may wish to give away their assets for other legitimate reasons. In some instances a transfer of property may take place in order to mitigate some for the beneficiaries. In order to prove this as the reason for the transfer, the individual would be seen to make a market rate of income if they were to remain in the home after transferring ownership.

Ultimately the Local Authority concerned would have to provide proof in these cases that the motivation for transfer of their assets was NOT for the purpose of getting them to pay their care home fees.

Other considerations should also be given when transferring your property to a family member or third party, such as not being able to raise finance against the value of your home, insecurity for the future should the person who the property transferred to may find themselves in financial difficulties and the property may need to be sold.