Paying for home care in England in 2023

What is home care?

Home care is intended to help keep you independent for longer. It can help individuals to stay in their home and avoid the need to go into sheltered housing or a care home. Home care can help with everyday things like dressing, washing, cooking and household tasks.

Home care should always be adapted to your needs and requirements, offering additional support where required to help keep you and others around you safe. But where you are able to continue taking part in tasks, you should be able to maintain your independence for as long as possible.

Home care can be in the form of someone visiting you on a fixed schedule, or you might have a live-in carer who can support you in the day and offer supervision at night.

Costs vary across the country, but prices for home care will typically start at £15 per hour. You can pay for this privately, request support from your local authority, or explore benefits that can be put towards the cost of home help.

Will the council pay for home care?

Your local council may contribute towards the cost of home care to help you remain in your own home for longer. They will first carry out an assessment to determine if you are eligible for support. The level of support you receive will be means tested, which means that it is based on your income, savings and assets.

• If you have over £23,250 in capital, you will have to pay your own home care fees.
• If you have between £14,250 and £23,250 in capital, you will qualify for financial support. You will get some support from your local council and will have to make up the excess from your own income, paying a contribution, plus a ‘tariff income’.
• If you have less than £14,250 in capital, you will be eligible for support and will have to pay a small contribution, but you will not pay the tariff income.

Some types of income, such as your pension and disability benefits will not be counted towards your capital. And if you are means tested, you have to be left with at least £189 per week, which is the Minimum Income Guarantee.

If you are eligible for support, you can ask your local council to arrange care, or you can arrange it privately and then receive direct payments from the council to put towards your care.

What financial support is available for home care?

If you are self-funding or partially self-funding your home care, it’s worth exploring other benefits that might be available to you to help make this more affordable. None of these benefits are means tested, so you don’t have to declare your income or savings in order to be eligible.

Attendance allowance

Attendance allowance is a benefit available to those over the state pension age with a disability or illness. It’s also available to those on end of life care. You may need to attend an assessment to determine how your illness or disability affects your ability to care for yourself at home. If you are eligible for attendance allowance, you may also see your pension credit, housing benefit and council tax discount increase.

Attendance allowance is between £68.10 and £101.75 per week.

Personal independence payment

An alternative to the attendance allowance is the personal independence payment. You must be over state pension age to be eligible for this type of benefit. This will give you money towards daily living support and a mobility allowance, if required.

Personal independence payment is between £68.10 and £101.75 per week. There is also an additional mobility component, between £26.90 and £71 per week.

Carer’s allowance

If a family member or friend is acting as a carer for you, they may be eligible for carer’s allowance.

Carer’s allowance is currently £76.75 per week and is usually paid every 4 weeks.

Need additional help navigating home care support?

If you’re not sure which help is available to you, get in touch with our team today. We can help you to maximise the benefits available to you so you can access the care you need, without compromise.