12-week property disregard

If the person you care for moves into a care home permanently, they may be entitled to a 12-week property disregard. This means that the value of their property will be disregarded from the financial assessment for the first 12 weeks. The intention of the regulations, under the Care Act 2014, is to give people breathing space, to prepare their property for sale and decide whether they want to sell or ask the council for a deferred payment agreement

In order to qualify for the 12-week property disregard, their capital must be less than the upper limit of £23,250 once the value of their property has been disregarded.

When must the 12-week disregard be applied?

Local Authority’s must disregard the value of a person’s main or only home for 12 weeks when:

they first enter a care home as a permanent resident, or,
when a property disregard, other than the 12-week property disregard, unexpectedly ends because the qualifying relative has died or moved into a care home. This is to allow time to make new arrangements regarding the property.

Discretion to apply the disregard

Additionally, local authorities have the discretion to choose to apply the disregard when there is a sudden and unexpected change in the person’s financial circumstances. In deciding this, they must consider individual circumstances. The guidance mentions a fall in share prices or an unanticipated debt and provides an example as follows:

Harry is a widower who owns his own home. Ten months ago he moved into a care home as a self-funder. He has been meeting the bulk of his costs from shares he received as part of his redundancy package. Due to an unexpected event, the value of his shares is suddenly reduced by half, meaning he is unable to meet the cost of his care.

Although already in a care home and likely to remain responsible for paying for this care, Harry approaches the local authority for assistance and to seek a Deferred Payment Agreement. During the financial assessment the local authority agrees that the circumstances could not have been foreseen and uses its discretion to disregard the value of his property for the first 12 weeks. This provides Harry with the space he needs to make arrangements for the Deferred Payment Agreement to be put in place and enable him to continue to meet the cost of his care.

End of the disregard

If the individual’s property is sold before the end of the 12-week property disregard, they will no longer have a property, and their capital will likely exceed the Higher Capital Limit (£23,250). They will become responsible for paying their own care costs from the date their property was sold.

At the end of the 12 weeks, they will be required to pay the full cost of their care. They do not need to sell their property: they may choose to rent it out or apply for a deferred payment agreement to cover their ongoing care costs.

Top-Ups during 12-week property disregard

If the individual is offered a care home at the council or market rate which they decline, and a more expensive care home was chosen, then the difference in cost between the council or market rate and the rate required by the care home is known as a ‘top-up’. Top-ups can be paid by the individual or by a third party. If the individual does not have capital to meet the cost of the top-up during the disregard period, they can arrange to repay this to the council when their property sells.

Benefits

If someone has a 12-week property disregard, they will effectively be seen as receiving public funding for those 12 weeks. This means that the following benefits will stop after 28 days in the care home and the relevant helpline should be contacted to make them aware of the change:

Attendance Allowance – 0800 731 0122
care component of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) – 0800 121 4600
daily living component of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) – 0800 121 4433

If the person is self-funding their care after the 12-week property disregard period ends, they can start claiming again by contacting the helpline to ask them to reinstate the benefit.

Further information and advice

For further information contact York Carers Centre on enquiries@yorkcarerscentre.co.uk or call 01904 715 490 and ask for an appointment with our Advice Worker.

City of York Council – 12-week property disregard

Advice