Contribution Towards The Costs Of Care – The Case Of The Daughter's Bedroom

The Court of Appeal in Walford v Worcestershire County Council [2015] EWCA Civ 22 allowed the appeal of Worcestershire Country Council against the decision on 10 February 2014 of Supperstone J that the value of an elderly lady's house should be disregarded for the purposes of assessing her contribution to the costs of care because her daughter, aged 67, maintained a bedroom and an office at her mother's home in addition to the daughter having a permanent home in London. In assessing the ability of a person who is becoming resident in a care home to contribute towards the costs of their care, the Local Authority could at the relevant time in this case take into account all the assets of the resident. Para 2 Schedule 4 National Assistance (Assessment of Resources) Regulations 1992 provided, however, that the value of premises occupied in whole or part as their home by a resident's child aged 60 or over should be disregarded. The daughter argued that, although she had a rented property in London, she had always regarded her mother's house as her home and had always kept a bedroom and an office there as well as many of her belongings and intended to live there upon her retirement. She had also paid for the maintenance of the house and garden since her father's death in 1983. The judge found that the Local Authority was wrong in considering that the daughter had to be permanently resident in her mother's home to qualify as being in occupation and...