Quote Originally Posted by Re-sign Carl Dale View Post
The advice two years ago was correct - the LA can't force the house to be sold if there's a spouse living there, and the whole house value is disregarded. If your dad was still living there and mum went down to £50,000 in other assets they would still have ignored the house completely.

Best planning for those looking to safeguard the property is for spouses NOT to leave the house directly to each other, it leaves the surving partner with 100% of the house which effectively is counted against them in any care assessments.
Thanks for clarifying the first point and yes to the last point. But....family politics and parental inertia/illness meant that a 2015 will applied when mum died and, although expensive in terms of care costs for dad, better to keep it simple. Old people can't understand change so even something as simple as replacing lightbulbs with LEDs was a nightmare. Let alone rewriting a will, in mum's case. She would have refused to make any changes.