04/21/2015
Just when her peers are settling down to enjoy retirement, Glen Walford has received an unexpected blow: she was told by the court to sell her family home in order to pay for her mum’s care fees.
Walford, a 75-year-old pensionerfrom Worcestershire, has been tangled in a legal battle with the Worcestershire County Council over the care fees of her 93-year-old mother Mary.
The family home of Walford in Stourport-on-Severn, which is worth £205,000, was initially sparedby the council when her mother was admitted to care back in 2006. However, the council changed its position in March of 2012 and asked her to sell the home to cover for Mary’s costs of care. Walford then brought the case before the High Court who sided with her back in 2014. But a new decision by the Court of Appeal this April said the council is correct and Walford should sell the house.
The law provides that pensioners in need of care with capital above £21,000 are not going to be covered by their councils and are required to make care contributions, the funds of which may sometimes come from the cost of selling their properties. However, a pensioner may pass means testing and not be forced to sell his or her home if a relative over 60 is residing in the property wholly or even part-time.
Walford claims she lives part-time in the Stourport-on-Severn home as she works in London as a theatre director and only rents an apartment there for her own convenience. She said even pays the family home’s taxes and electric bills and has spent £40,000 for renovations out of her own pocket.
The ruling of the Court of Appeal, however, denied Walford’s claim, saying the house in dispute is not her main residence.
The ruling is viewed as a significant one with possible wide-ranging repercussions. Charlotte Kelley, associate of the Worcestershire firm Kerwoods, told Worcester News in an April 8 interview: “This was a very significant judgement and one which will affect many in similar situations. This is a very complex area which will affect an increasing number of people.”
