Paying for care after getting sick can be problematic if you’re not prepared. It’s never too early to think about long-term care because there’s no telling when you’ll suddenly get sick or get into an accident. Some people think they have to sell their homes if they see no other option. But, there are a few ways you can still keep your home and, at the same time, get the medical care you need.
Create A Will
If you haven’t created a will during the time, you’re still healthy and working, it’ll be challenging to keep your assets away from the state if you have debt that you must pay off. If you die and your spouse goes into care for being sick, the state may decide to sell your home to pay for care.
Getting a will made that puts your assets in a trust as a form of care home fees protection instead of leaving them directly to your spouse can be more practical. A trust is legally binding to follow your specific wishes. You can instruct your lawyer to put at least half of your assets to pay for the long-term care of a spouse. That way, your surviving spouse won’t have to sell your home.
Consider Nursing Care Funding
When it’s time for the sick surviving spouse to move into a care home, the prospect of paying for your entire stay can be worrisome. That could mean that you may have to sell your family home if your remaining family members couldn’t find other solutions, or if you have no one else to care for you. But, this isn’t always true because there are other alternatives. You can count on the following, such as any of the two types of funding for nursing care:
- Option one is the NHS Continuing Healthcare, which is fully funded courtesy of the NHS and available if your relative’s ‘Primary Health Need’ pertains to care solely for the health need and nothing related to social care need. The latter refers to caregiving tasks, such as washing, grooming, mobility, feeding, and more.
- Option two is available to those with relatives who don’t have NHS continuing healthcare funding. You can get a weekly stipend from the Funded Nursing Care from the Clinical Commissioning Group. The allowance will go directly to the care home. It will help cover the cost of the nursing home care that the registered nurse can provide.
It’s essential to find the right senior care services for your family member. If you’re a relative caring for the elderly, you need to find the best and nearest nursing home to provide 24-hour attention to the patient. They can be expensive, but your loved one will get the best medical care. It will be best to coordinate with the council at this point.
Property Disregard Scheme
The council can help adequately take care of you by using this plan. The committee will pay for the first 12 weeks of your care, provided that you have a property and it doesn’t have anyone living in it.
The way it works is that the authorities will need to determine how much the actual value of your home is a bit later. They’ll pay for the first twelve weeks of your stay there. That’s a given if you have no more relatives or dependent children living in the homes.
While assessing the cost of care, they’ll first disregard the home’s value as they need to see how many more weeks it’ll take to pay the rest of the care. However, it’s only a temporary solution. Since there’s no other way for them to pay for your care, the grace period that they’ve been giving you will allow you to decide on selling or owning the house.
If you need respite care or more time to decide if you need to stay at the care home for a certain amount of time, it can be beneficial to develop other possible solutions. After that period, you’ll need to pay the total cost of the care, and the 12-week amount will be a part of your capital.
Use Equity Release
Another way to help you cover the cost of care without selling your home is through equity release. Home care costs are an emergency need wherein you can also use the equity value of your house instead of using it to renovate your home or buy another property. Of course, this is another indication of why it’ll be best to build the equity of your home while you’re still in your early working years. You can use either home reversion plans or lifetime mortgages.
The lifetime mortgage option is a loan that you take out against the value of your home. It’s an alternative that offers a tax-free lump sum, or you can choose to make smaller withdrawals instead.
Conclusion
You don’t always consider selling your home if there are other last resorts you can do. Your home is just as valuable to you and your surviving heirs. It would be worth your while to ask for legal advice on what to do or how to best prepare for financial straits.
