Frequently Asked Questions
We are always pleased to answer questions about the Care and Home Inheritance Plan, or about paying for residential care in general. These are some of the questions we are asked most regularly.
My Mum lives on her own and needs care, will the Plan pay for this?
If your Mum owns her own home, yes it will. The Plan will make her care affordable whether she decides to receive this care at home, or in a care home.
My Father now needs care but his partner doesn’t, will the Plan make his care affordable?
If he (they) own their own home, yes it will. Your Father and his partner need to decide the best way for him to receive his care – at home or in a care home. One of our Care Advisors can explain the options available to them.
Will our family inherit Dad’s house when he passes even if his Plan has paid out tens of thousands for his care?
Yes, provided your Dad has left his house to your family. Once your family inherits the house it becomes your family’s to do what they want with it once the lease to My Lifetime Care has been cancelled.
The lease can be cancelled for nil cost once the rent has repaid all your Dad’s care costs – or any time sooner by paying the costs not yet repaid by rent. My Lifetime Care can advise you exactly what this cost (The Lease Break Fee) is at any time.
If you want to keep living in your house while your partner moves into care, how does this and the CHIP work, what are the actual logistics?
My Lifetime Care’s CHIP will fund the care of the partner who moves into the care home. Following the grant of the CHIP My Lifetime owns the lease on the couple’s home and grants the partner a tenancy. My Lifetime Care thus takes on all the Landlord responsibilities for the care, maintenance and insurance of their home and the other partner acquires all the rights due under the law to a tenant. If the partner has limited funds to pay rent due under their tenancy , My Lifetime Care helps them secure Housing Benefit towards their rent.
Furthermore . when their partner also needs care, the partner will also be entitled to payments from their Council towards the cost of any care in their own home that they need. The same CHIP can also fund any additional care the partner wants over and above what the Council will pay
What is My Lifetime Care? Are you a charity?
My Lifetime Care (MLC) is a company set up to make the Care and Home Inheritance Plan available to all who own their own home. MLC is wholly owned by My Respite Care Ltd, which is a registered charity, number X.
Who chooses whether my care is provided in a care home or in my own home?
You do. You choose how and where you receive the care you need and who provides it. My Lifetime Care’s Advisors can arrange for you to receive your own care needs assessment if you wish and can also advise you of domicilary care providers and care homes that can meet your needs.
It sounds too good to be true, how can I be sure this isn’t a scam?
To purchase a Plan you must be independently advised by your own solicitor. She/he is legally required to act in your own best interests. What’s more your solicitor will not permit you to grant My Lifetime Care a lease on your house unless you have full mental capacity or have a Power of Attorney who makes this choice for you.
NB. The Plan will pay all your solicitors costs and it will recover these costs over time from the rent it charges on the property.
My Mum is in hospital now but wants to come home and the doctors say she can, will the Plan help speed this up?
Yes it can. The Plan can pay for same day or next day hospital discharge including respite care if she needs this before returning home. Alternatively, The Plan will also pay for fast and safe discharge to the care home your Mum chooses if that is what she wants.
Is the Plan like the Deferred Payment Agreement (DPA) offered by Local Authorities to people who can’t/don’t sell their houses to pay their care fees?
No – The Plan differs from the DPA in five ways:
1. You have an unrestricted choice of the care home you choose to live in.
2. Your beneficiaries retain your house rather than having to sell it shortly after you have passed.
3. My lifetime Care rather than you and your family is responsible for insuring, improving, letting and collecting the rent on your house.
4. The rent earned from letting your property is used to repay the care costs which the Plan has paid for.
5. Any increase in your property’s value from residential property price inflation over the period the Plan is in place is retained by you and your beneficiaries.
Is the Plan a kind of Equity Release?
No – The Plan is the complete opposite of Equity Release. The value borrowed from your house to pay your care costs is fully repaid and the value of your estate is enhanced by rent and inflation – not reduced .