Fair deal question

A relation is currently in assisted living, but may have to go to a nursing home at some point.

He wants to sell his house, and divide money amongst siblings, but I cannot find anywhere where this scenario is covered.

I would be most grateful for any advice, as this thing is a minefield.

Many thanks.

Hi Freddie,

Welcome to AAM.

The rules of the Fair Deal scheme are here on Citizens' Information.

You will see that the last thing your relative should do is to sell their property and divide the money as these funds will be taken into account in their Financial Assessment and therefore their fees for the nursing home will be higher.

Income and assets​

Income includes any:

• Earnings
• Pension
• Social welfare benefits or allowances
• Income from holding an office or directorship
• Income from fees, commissions, dividends or interest
• Transferred income (any income you transferred to someone else within 5 years of your first application)
• Rental income from any properties which are not your home

An asset is any material property or wealth, including property or wealth outside Ireland.

Assets are divided into 2 categories, cash assets and non-cash assets.

Cash assets include:

• Savings and deposits
• Stocks, shares, securities and other financial instruments
• Approved retirement funds (value of fund at date of application)
• Money loaned by you to another person
• Cash assets transferred to another person in the last 5 years

There are some previous relevant AAM threads here especially this one.

Freddie* said:

He wants to sell his house, and divide money amongst siblings

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As pointed out by Sue, your relation should not sell before going into a nursing home under F/D as they will then have to pay indefinitely on the proceeds of the house sale (no 3 year cap).

My understanding is, once approved and in a nursing home under F/D your relation could then sell and the proceeds of the sale would qualify for the 3 year cap.

If your relation was considering selling after moving into a home and giving money to siblings, their F/D payment every month would include an amount assessed on the house, they would need to keep enough to pay that amount for the first 3 years. It would also be a good idea to keep some of the proceeds for them-self as F/D only covers basic care, bed, meals, laundry, there will be expenses that are not covered.