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Chapter 8: The Gift That Wasn't
6 sources. Checked September 2026.
Every claim in this chapter is traced to the source behind it. Below is each one, numbered as it appears in the book, with a link that opens the original.
- Care and Support Statutory Guidance, Annex E, "Deprivation of assets." The guidance directs a council to consider whether avoiding a care and support charge was a significant motivation behind a transfer of assets — not necessarily the only or main motivation. Check the current edition of the guidance, since it is reviewed periodically.
www.gov.uk/government/publications/care-act-statutory-guidance/care-and-support-statutory-guidance - Inheritance tax has a genuine seven-year rule: most lifetime gifts fall outside an estate for inheritance tax purposes if the giver survives seven years after making them. No equivalent time limit applies to deprivation of assets for care funding. This book does not cover inheritance tax rules in detail, since they sit outside its scope.
www.gov.uk/inheritance-tax/gifts - Care and Support Statutory Guidance, Annex E, does not set a fixed time limit within which a council can examine a past gift or transfer. What matters is whether a care need was reasonably foreseeable at the time, not how long ago the transaction happened. Confirm the current wording with your parent's council, or an independent adviser, since guidance is reviewed periodically.
www.gov.uk/government/publications/care-act-statutory-guidance/care-and-support-statutory-guidance - Care and Support (Charging and Assessment of Resources) Regulations 2014 (SI 2014/2672), regulation 22, "Notional capital." Where a council decides deprivation of assets has occurred, it treats your parent as though they still held the value of the asset, for the purpose of the financial assessment.
www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/2672/regulation/22 - Care and Support (Charging and Assessment of Resources) Regulations 2014 (SI 2014/2672), regulation 23\. Each week, the notional capital figure reduces by the difference between what your parent is actually charged because of it, and what they would have been charged without it. Ask your parent's council how it is recalculating the figure, and how often.
www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/2672/regulation/23 - Care Act 2014, s.70, "Transfer of assets to avoid charges." Where your parent transferred an asset with the intention of avoiding a care charge, and the recipient paid less than it was worth, the council can ask the recipient to pay the difference between what your parent would have been charged without the transfer and what they were actually charged. The recipient's liability cannot exceed the value of what they received, and is shared proportionally where more than one person benefited. How often this power is used in practice is not well documented. Ask your parent's council, or a solicitor specialising in community care law, whether this could apply to your family.
www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/23/section/70
Sources for the other chapters are listed at ageingparent.co.uk/sources/who-pays. Free guides on the topics in this book are at ageingparent.co.uk.