Will I have to sell my house to pay for care?
Not while you receive care at home, or while a partner or qualifying relative still lives there.
Not while you receive care at home, or while a partner or qualifying relative still lives there.
After a permanent move into a care home its value counts as capital from week 13, and a deferred payment agreement lets the fees be repaid from the house later, after your death if you choose.
The advisers for this subject: Sunny Bharj and Tony Springer
When you first move permanently into a care home, and your other capital is under £23,250, the council must ignore the value of your home for 12 weeks. It pays towards your care in that time on the basis of your other means.
The same 12 weeks apply where a disregard ends unexpectedly, for example where the partner living in the house dies or moves into care. The council should tell you about deferred payment agreements during the 12 weeks.
You need care in a care home, £23,250 or less in capital other than the home, and a home that is not already being ignored. The council has to offer an agreement where it can secure it.
The council takes a first legal charge on the property. A jointly owned home needs the other owner's consent.
Up to the value of the home less 10%, less £14,250, less any mortgage. A £165,000 home with no mortgage gives £134,250.
The council can charge compound interest up to a national maximum, reset each 1 January and 1 July, plus administration charges. Interest keeps running after death until the debt is repaid.
The amount is deferred and not written off. It is repaid when the house is sold, or from your estate, or earlier if you choose.
A deferral can last until death.Care and support statutory guidance, paragraph 9.6
Where you qualify for a deferred payment agreement and the council can take a first charge on the house, it has to offer one, and the deferral can last until death.
No. Where your partner lived there before you went into the care home and still lives there, its value is ignored.
No. A deferred payment agreement is a debt to the council, with interest capped at a national maximum. A lifetime mortgage is a loan from a lender, and the money it releases counts as your capital. Equity release questions
The council values only your share. A deferred payment agreement on a jointly owned house needs both owners to sign the charge.
Keeping the house, selling it or releasing equity each leave a different estate behind, and we can set the three side by side.
Independent Financial Adviser
Independent Financial Adviser
Your first call is with an Account Manager and is at no cost to you. Tell us what is on your mind: a pension you have lost track of, a fixed rate ending, a will you keep meaning to write.