Planning ahead for the cost of residential care is a common concern. Many people ask how they can protect their home and savings if they ever need to move into a care home.

Let’s be clear: there is no guaranteed way to avoid care charges entirely. Any scheme claiming to eliminate care costs completely is likely to be flawed — and could even backfire. This guide explains how care fees are assessed in Scotland, what does and doesn’t work, and the practical steps you can take.

How Care Charges Are Assessed

In Scotland, if you have capital over £26,500, you’ll be expected to meet the full cost of your care until your capital falls below that threshold.

Capital includes:

• Your home (unless exempt)
• Savings and current accounts
• ISAs, stocks, shares, and Premium Bonds
• Cash and other financial assets

If your capital is below £16,500, it is disregarded and the State will contribute to your care.

If your capital is between £16,500 and £26,500, you are treated as having “tariff income” — an assumed £1 per week of income for every £250 (or part thereof) in that range.

Is My Home Included in the Assessment?

Your home is exempt from the financial assessment if it is occupied by:

• Your spouse or civil partner
• Certain qualifying relatives (for example, a dependent child or a relative over 60)

The exemption only applies if it is genuinely their main residence. Moving a relative in shortly before care is needed will not protect the property.

What Doesn’t Work: Family Asset Protection Trusts

You may have seen Family Asset Protection Trusts promoted as a guaranteed solution. They are not.

These involve transferring your home or other assets into a trust for no payment. Local authorities are alert to such arrangements. If they believe the purpose was to avoid care charges, they can treat you as still owning the asset — regardless of how long ago the transfer was made.

Note: The “seven-year rule” applies to Inheritance Tax, not care home assessments. In Scotland, there is no time limit on how far back a local authority can look where deliberate deprivation is suspected.

At Hastings Legal, we have been offered opportunities to sell these schemes, but we have always declined — because they do not reliably work and can create more problems than they solve.

What Might Work: Liferent and Fee Arrangements

A liferent and fee is a traditional Scots Law arrangement. You retain the right to live in the property (the liferent) while transferring the ownership (the fee) to your chosen beneficiaries.

This can help protect the property from being fully assessed — but only if:

• It is set up well in advance of care being needed, and
• There is a genuine, documented reason for the transfer other than avoiding care charges.

Even then, there is no guarantee. The earlier it is done, the more likely it will withstand scrutiny.

What Does Work: Reviewing Your Title and Will

This is one of the most effective — and underused — care fee planning tools.

Most couples own their home with a survivorship clause. This means that when one spouse dies, the other automatically becomes the sole owner.

While this is convenient in younger years, it can be risky in later life:

• While one spouse is living in the home, it is exempt from assessment.
• If the spouse in the home dies first, survivorship means 100% of the property passes to the spouse in care — and becomes fully assessable.

The solution:

• Remove the survivorship clause from your title; and
• Update your Will to leave your share of the property to your beneficiaries, with a liferent in favour of your spouse.

This allows your spouse to live in the home for life without owning the entire property, protecting at least half the value from care fee assessment.

Why This Method Works

Unlike early gifting or certain trust schemes, this approach does not involve transferring ownership during your lifetime. Instead, it sets out a future arrangement in your Will and title deeds.

Because nothing has been given away now, the local authority cannot treat it as “deliberate deprivation of assets.”

The Importance of Timing

Care fee planning works best when considered as part of overall estate planning — not as a last-minute step. The earlier you act, the more options you have.

Need Advice?

Care fee planning is complex and depends on your personal and financial circumstances. At Hastings Legal, we can:

• Review your current title and Will
• Explain the pros and cons of different approaches
• Make sure your arrangements are legally sound and future-proofed

Call 01573 226999 or email enq@hastingslegal.co.uk to arrange a no-obligation discussion.