So people with MS get hit once again, because we can “foresee” we’re going to need some kind of care?
This makes me so mad - I was careful all my life, and amassed sizeable investments - on only a modestly paying job. I got two further “windfalls” - though hardly ones you’d wish to qualify for - for critical illness and a redundancy settlement, respectively.
I am now ill, not working, and eligible for no benefits at all (not poor enough/ill enough) hence already living - at 50 - on the provisions that were meant to provide for a worry-free and even comfortable old age.
My father, similarly, worked hard, did not believe in borrowing (except to buy the house) and invested whatever he didn’t immediately need. He too ran into misfortune relatively late in life, through no fault of his own. He got a terminal disease as a result of occupational exposure to asbestos, and was awarded a huge court settlement in respect of that, which swelled family assets considerably - but again, for a dreadful reason - one we’d rather not have had.
At some point, I stand to inherit a portion of Dad’s fortune, in addition to what I accrued myself as a result of a combination of hard work and compensation for crap that has happened.
Now I find even that isn’t safe, and I will never have my “nice” old age, because I’ll be expected to use even Dad’s legacy to fund my own illness! Good job, in some ways, he isn’t here to see it - he hoped what he’d amassed in his lifetime, including his final fight for compensation for his impending death - would ensure none of us would ever have to worry again.
He’d be horrified to think his sick daughter would have to use it on necessities, including not just food and heating, but care.
I have a horrible feeling the advice you’ve received is right - that if you intentionally divest yourself of assets in contemplation of needing care - whether by a trust vehicle, or simply giving it away in advance to those who would have been your beneficiaries after death, it can be set aside.
It seems grossly unfair that because it’s always foreseeable - effectively from the day of diagnosis - that we may need care at some point - we don’t have the rights of somebody fit and well, but ageing, who decides to place their money out of reach.
A lot of people without MS who are well now will still need care in their later years, but there is nothing to stop them safeguarding their assets, because it cannot be proved they “knew”.
But with us, they are going to say: “Uh-oh, no you’re already ill - you can’t squirrel stuff away like everybody else is doing, because you know.” Some people here will have “known” since 20, or even younger. How can it be fair you can never in your whole life set up a valid trust to protect the home, because you had the misfortune to be diagnosed with MS in your youth?
I do think it’s true. However, I don’t know if it’s worth setting up a trust anyway, on the offchance the council may view it as too cumbersome and expensive to pursue it through the courts. I believe councils have very different policies on this - some will always pursue it - some write it off.
It might be worth talking to Age Concern - even if you are not old. I think they have quite a lot of advice about this, and MSers can’t be the only people in poor health who worry about how they can protect themselves from the expense!
Tina
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