I'm asking this for a friend (honestly) and the scenario doesn't necessarily express my own views.
My friend's elderly father is in hospital. It looks increasingly likely the father won't be coming up, but will need 24 hour care, presumably in a nursing home. The parent owns his own house, and has a comfortable amount of cash in the bank. My friend (the son) wants the parent to get the best care he can get (in nursing home terms) and pay as little as possible. To this end, the son is considering the idea of the parent gifting the house and cash to the son, thus the parent will appear to be without funds when the time comes to look for a nursing home. (I presume the idea here is that the State will provide for the parent, but I'm not quite sure if that is the idea - I didn't ask as I didn't want to know). Anyway, the gifting of the house and cash to the son will not in itself cause any real problems (IMO) as a child is entitled to a gift of that sort of value from a parent without the child incurring much if any gift tax. (I haven't done the figures, but basically gift tax won't be a major problem). However, would the State 'look back' when assessing (means testing) the parent? Or would the State simply accept that the man has very little cash/assets currently, and has only his pension as income? If the State could/would look back, presumably then the old man would be assessed as having means (because the State would see that he had, effectively, transferred his assets)?
My friend's elderly father is in hospital. It looks increasingly likely the father won't be coming up, but will need 24 hour care, presumably in a nursing home. The parent owns his own house, and has a comfortable amount of cash in the bank. My friend (the son) wants the parent to get the best care he can get (in nursing home terms) and pay as little as possible. To this end, the son is considering the idea of the parent gifting the house and cash to the son, thus the parent will appear to be without funds when the time comes to look for a nursing home. (I presume the idea here is that the State will provide for the parent, but I'm not quite sure if that is the idea - I didn't ask as I didn't want to know). Anyway, the gifting of the house and cash to the son will not in itself cause any real problems (IMO) as a child is entitled to a gift of that sort of value from a parent without the child incurring much if any gift tax. (I haven't done the figures, but basically gift tax won't be a major problem). However, would the State 'look back' when assessing (means testing) the parent? Or would the State simply accept that the man has very little cash/assets currently, and has only his pension as income? If the State could/would look back, presumably then the old man would be assessed as having means (because the State would see that he had, effectively, transferred his assets)?