Can gifted money be assessed in financing of rest home care?

The legal questions surrounding whether gifted money is actually forgone income, and as such could be used to off-set rest home subsidies. The case in question here is that of 80 year old Gwyneth Broadbent, who over a period of time sold the family home, and holiday home, into family trusts, within the allowable limit of 27 thousand dollars a year. By the time Gwyneth needed to go into a care home in 2014 nearly 330 thousand dollars worth of assets had been gifted. To discuss this area of law, professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Otago, Nicola Peart and Theresa Donnelly from Public Trust.