If you’re considering home care for a loved one, then one of your first questions could be ‘How much does home care cost?’
Home care – also known as domiciliary care – is support provided at people's homes to help them carry out everyday tasks. It is typically provided to older people so they can stay in their own familiar surroundings. While it is a valuable service, understanding how much home care costs and how to access funding will be a crucial next step.
In this post, you’ll learn everything you need to know about the cost of home care, how to get funding and ways to cover the costs. Read on to help you make plans for yourself or your loved one.
How to access home care
If you notice your loved one struggling with daily activities like getting dressed or preparing a meal, you can ask the adult social services department at the local council for a care needs assessment. This will identify what help your loved one needs to stay living independently in their own home.
You can contact your relative’s local council via their website or, with their permission, ask your relative’s GP or district nurse to make a referral.
If your loved one is coming home from the hospital, staff on their ward will be able to arrange home care for them.
Contact a local home care provider
Another option to access home care is to reach out to Bramble Home Care. We can carry out a free initial home care consultation to work out a personalised quote.
You can also find out more about choosing a home care provider and the right questions to ask in our article How to choose a home care provider for the first time.
Types of funding options available
There are three different ways to fund the cost of at home care:
Local authority funding: The local council funds some or all of the cost of in home care, according to a means test.
NHS funding: In some cases, the NHS will cover all or part of the costs of home care.
Self-funding: The person receiving the care, or their family, pays for the cost themselves.
More about funding options
Let’s look at the ways to fund home care in more detail.
Local authority funding
To access local authority funding, your local council will first carry out a ‘needs assessment’. This will identify whether your relative is entitled to support.
Once this has been established, the council will proceed with a financial assessment. If your loved one’s savings and assets exceed the threshold, then they will need to pay for some of their own care. For 2024-2025, the threshold for England is £23,250. This figure does not include the value of your home.
NHS funding
In some circumstances, the NHS will pay for home care for people who have complex medical needs due to illness or disability or as the result of an accident.
Your relative may be entitled to up to six weeks' NHS funding for home care after a hospital stay or a short illness. This is known as NHS intermediate care or reablement care.
Self-funding
Your relative will need to cover the cost of home care if any one of these statements applies to them:
Their savings and assets are above the threshold of £23,250.
Their income is enough to cover the cost of home care, provided that this does not take them below a minimum level (the ‘minimum income guarantee’). This is currently £228.70 per week for single people above State Pension age and £174.60 per week for people who are in a couple where one person has reached State Pension age.
The needs assessment found that they were not eligible for local authority funding.
If your loved one is self-funding and their savings and assets fall below the threshold, your local authority should contribute to the cost of home care services. They will conduct a reassessment of your loved one’s needs and finances to work out how much support they should receive.
The cost of home care
The cost of in home care is on average between £24 to £34 per hour in the UK. Of course, each case is individual, and what your relative pays will depend on factors including:
The number of hours
The type of care required (home care, dementia care or mental health home care, for example)
Whether they opt for 24-hour care or occasional visits
For example, if your relative needs help with their morning and evening routines, as well as a visit around lunchtime, this could add up to three hours a day. If they receive this care for five days out of seven, they would be looking at paying for 15 hours a week, which could cost anywhere between £360 to £510 a week.
Ways to pay for in home care
There are several different ways your relative could pay for home care:
Their own savings pot
Income from their state or private pension
Income from a rental property
Benefits
Equity release scheme — this can release cash from the value of their property
Immediate needs annuity — buying one of these means your relative gets a regular income to pay for their care for as long as they need it
Downsizing to a smaller home to release cash
Help from family or friends
How your relative funds their care is an important decision. Whatever option(s) they choose, they must ensure they are receiving the right type of care. It’s important they feel comfortable with their decision and be confident that it is sustainable in the long term, should the need for home care continue.
Can my loved one get financial support to help with care at home?
A range of benefits can help your relative with home care. These include Attendance Allowance, Personal Independence Payment and Carer’s Allowance.
You can use this benefits calculator on the gov.uk website to find out what they may be entitled to.
Is home care more affordable than a care home?
Generally speaking, home care is more affordable than a care home, especially if your loved one doesn’t need round-the-clock care.
It’s important to reiterate that if your relative is living in their own home, its value is not taken into account in their local council’s financial assessment. (It can be used as part of the means testing process for residential care homes.) This is one of the many benefits of home care, which can offer a more personalised and flexible service.
Why Bramble Home Care?
If you're looking for an experienced and reliable home care agency serving Gloucestershire, make Bramble Home Care your first choice.
When you entrust your loved one’s care to us, you can be assured that you’ve made the right decision.
Bramble Home Care has been providing services, including home care and specialist dementia and mental health home care, since 2010.
Our carers have been trained to the highest standard in home care to ensure they have the right expertise to look after your loved one. What’s more, our approach to each of our clients is unique so that our care is tailored to their needs.
Reach out to know more about our Home Care services
If you’d like to discuss how our Home Care services could help your relative, please contact our friendly team.
You can book a home care consultation to take place in your or your loved one’s home at a time that suits you.
Or choose another way to contact us:
Call us on 01684 217040
Email us at enquiries@bramblehomecare.co.uk