Self Funding Home Care: What It Costs and How to Make It Last

Why most families end up self funding

Local authority help with care costs is means tested. Above the upper capital threshold you are expected to pay in full, and property is counted for residential care although not for care in your own home. Between the thresholds you contribute on a sliding scale, and below the lower threshold the council funds care subject to an eligibility assessment.

Because home care does not count the value of your house, a great many people who would be full self funders in a care home receive some council help with care at home. It is always worth requesting a financial assessment rather than assuming you will not qualify.

What home care actually costs

Reedsfield Care's visiting care starts at £22 an hour, and live-in care starts at £1,150 a week. There are no setup fees, no agency fees and no minimum contract, so a package can start small and grow.

In practice, a typical first package is two or three half hour visits a day for personal care and medication, which lands in the region of a few hundred pounds a week. Families supporting someone with advancing dementia usually move to longer visits, then to overnight cover, then to live-in care, and each step is a noticeable jump. Planning for that trajectory early avoids a rushed decision later.

• Visiting care from £22 per hour
• Live-in care from £1,150 per week, with couples quoted per assessment
• Waking nights and complex care quoted after assessment
• No minimum contract and one week's notice to change or stop
• Relief cover for carer breaks included in the live-in fee

Making the money last

The single biggest saving available to most families is choosing live-in care over two care home places for a couple, because one carer supports both partners. The second is buying the right shape of care rather than the most care. Two well timed visits at the pressure points of the day often achieve more than a longer block at the wrong time.

Review the package every few months rather than leaving it as it was set. Needs change in both directions, especially after a course of physiotherapy or a medication change, and a package that is never reviewed drifts upward in cost without anyone deciding that it should.

• Match visit times to the genuine pressure points, not the clock
• Use one live-in carer for a couple rather than two placements
• Claim Attendance Allowance, which is not means tested
• Review the care plan quarterly and after any hospital stay
• Ask about equipment and adaptations that reduce the hours needed

Benefits self funders still qualify for

Being a self funder does not exclude you from non means tested support. Attendance Allowance is payable regardless of savings or income, and it is not taxed. NHS Continuing Healthcare is assessed on need rather than means, so a self funder with primarily health related needs can have care fully funded by the NHS.

Council Tax reductions, VAT relief on certain disability equipment, and free NHS equipment such as grab rails and commodes through an occupational therapy assessment are all available to self funders. Ask for an occupational therapy assessment early, because equipment often reduces the amount of paid care needed.

Your right to a council assessment even as a self funder

Anyone with an appearance of need is entitled to a care needs assessment, regardless of wealth. It is worth having, because it produces a written record of needs, gives access to occupational therapy and equipment, and puts you in the system before your capital falls towards the threshold.

If money is likely to run low at some point, tell the council well before it happens. Councils have a duty to meet eligible needs once capital falls below the threshold, but the transition is smoother when the assessment already exists and the provider is one the council can contract with.

Getting proper financial advice

For larger sums, speak to a financial adviser accredited in later life advice. They can advise on immediate needs annuities, which convert a lump sum into a guaranteed income for care for life, and on the tax and inheritance implications of different approaches.

Be cautious about deliberately giving away assets to avoid care fees. Councils can treat that as deprivation of assets and assess you as though you still held the money. Honest planning with proper advice is safer and usually more effective.