If you’re feeling the pinch trying to pay off your bit of the national debt, and can pass yourself off as a Conservative Lady, you really shouldn’t miss a talk at the Riverside Centre next week.
It’s one of a regular series with themes ranging from entertainment to improvement. This one’s definitely the latter, financial improvement to be precise. It’s entitled: “How wills and trusts can protect your assets from care home fees and other unwanted claims.”
Care home fees
As we all know, one of the least welcome aspects of getting old is the growing risk that the family home – the kids’ inheritance – may be sold to pay for residential care. The government keeps talking warm words on the subject, but the juggernaut keeps coming, with cash-strapped local authorities adopting a more and more hard-nosed approach to who and what they’ll pay for, and who and what they won’t.
The bottom line is that, if you’ve got more than £23,250 in the bank – or, in many circumstances, tied up in the value of your house – you’re on your own when it comes to care home fees. The Isle of Wight Council will assess your needs but also your means. The test is a stern one. If, for example, the Council thinks you’ve been giving money away in order to get your capital below the threshold, it’ll make you pay anyway. It’ll also set a maximum level of fees it’s prepared to pay for care on the island, which may leave a gap for your family to fill even if Council funding is forthcoming. Then it collects what it decides you owe, by direct debit, and pays it to the care home.
Talk being given
What a comfort, then, that the Island’s Conservative Women’s Association is laying on this talk. All lady members welcome. Coffee available. Guest speaker Edward Giles.
Hang on a minute. Edward Giles. Surely not the Edward Giles, IW Council Cabinet member and a survivor of David Pugh’s recent reshuffle? One of the men at the very centre of policy-making which gives rise to those “unwanted claims” in the first place?
Cllr Giles’s potted biography on the Council’s website says he took early retirement in April 2009 after working as a solicitor in private practice in Newport. But on his declaration of interests page we read: “Self employed estate planning and wills consultant…” His LinkedIn profile is even more revealing. “I advise clients on: wills, protection of assets from care home fees and other potential claims.”
Sounds like our man then.
The questions posed
On The Wight asked Cllr Giles whether he saw any contradiction between, on the one hand, his very senior political role in the charging authority, and, on the other hand, offering professional advice – apparently free of charge if you’re a member of the Conservative Women’s Association – as to how those “unwanted claims” could be avoided.
Was he for, or against, the Council’s stated policy of targeting care support at those genuinely in need, we wondered; for, or against, people with access to professional advice putting their assets beyond the reach of the Isle of Wight Council solely for the purpose of avoiding care home fees.
Cllr Giles’ response
Cllr Giles gave us this response the next morning
“I have been invited to speak in my capacity as a consultant for Collective Legal Solutions, not as a councillor. You will find their website at www.collectivelegalsolutions.co.uk
“As you will see from the website we offer a range of services including inheritance planning. This is a perfectly legitimate and highly respectable business. Many families having paid taxes and worked hard for many years quite rightly want to leave their assets to whom they choose. This is a free country and people are at liberty to arrange their affairs as they wish provided they act within the law.
“Consequently there is no contradiction such as you suggest in my position. If someone’s sole motivation for arranging their affairs in a certain way is to try and remove their assets from a claim by the local authority then they will probably be caught by the deliberate deprivation rules. In such cases we would not advise anyone to take the steps solely for that reason. There are however other reasons why people may wish to make such arrangements. This I will be making very clear in the talk as I always do when advising clients.
“With regard to point number 2 as a member of the Council’s Cabinet I do of course support the Council’s published policies.”
Another ex-solicitor to speak
Meanwhile back to the Tory ladies and their fascinating series of talks. Next up, in October, is another familiar name, Roger Mazillius – and there definitely aren’t two of them.
Roger leaves the Cabinet in November with David Pugh’s praise ringing in his ears following his stint as portfolio holder for adult social care and housing: “Roger’s strong support for personal budgets and our charging policy have ensured that services have been tailored to clients and we have also been able to support those who need our support the most.”
Cllr Mazillius is staying off the subject of care home fees, perhaps differing with his colleague as to who needs the most support on such matters. His chosen topic: “My time as a solicitor to the Stars and others.” The suspense is killing us.
Image: Tax Brackets under CC BY 2.0
