Miss Glen Walford v Worcestershire County Council

The Court of Appeal has handed down an important judgment on the interpretation of the regulations determining when a family home should be excluded from means-testing for the purposes of imposing charges for residential care.

Miss Walford succeeded in the High Court ([2014] EWHC 234 (Admin)) in obtaining the quashing of the local authority’s decision to take account of the value of her family home when assessing her mother’s ability to pay care home charges. The High Court (Mr Justice Supperstone) found that the local authority had erred by considering that Miss Walford had to be permanently resident in the family home in order to trigger the mandatory disregard which applies to properties “occupied” by family members aged over 60. The local authority did not appeal that quashing order, but challenged the Judge’s guidance on how the remitted decision should be re-determined, and in particular on whether it was obliged to take into account any change in the nature and extent of Miss Walford’s occupation arising after her mother’s entry into care.

The Court of Appeal decided by a majority (Lord Justice McCombe dissenting) that the local authority need only consider the circumstances pertaining at the date of entry into care. The decision will now be remitted on that basis.

The full judgment can be read here: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2015/22.html 

Fraser Campbell (instructed by Tom Cassels and Anjuli Patel of Baker & McKenzie) acted pro bono for Miss Walford in both the High Court and Court of Appeal.