Funding & Costs

How to fund long-term care is an important consideration when looking at home care options. Depending on your personal circumstances, there may be public funding or benefits available to you, or other finance options.

Most of our customers fund their care privately or via direct payments. If you’re funding care yourself, we do recommend that you first research whether any benefits are available to you. We’ve provided lots of advice here to help you get started and point you in the right direction.

Other funding options you may want to consider include purchasing an immediate needs annuity. We also get asked many questions around lasting power of attorney and other asset-related matters.

We understand that care funding can be a bewildering issue and process, with many people unsure about the funds they’re entitled to and how they can access or use these.

Firstly, in order to distinguish what specific type of funding – healthcare funding or social care funding – you may be entitled to, it is important to make the distinction between the two types of care.

Definitions of social care and healthcare are somewhat ambiguous, and it is therefore important to explore all options and seek advice from medical or legal professionals to make this distinction where uncertainty prevails.

However, the below definitions provided by the National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare and NHS-funded Nursing Care should help to get you started

If you live in England, the threshold after which you will have to pay for your care in full is £23,250. If your assets exceed this amount, which includes most savings and investments, your local authority will consider you able pay for care yourself. It is important to remember that for care within your own home, the value of your property will not be taken into account.

You can ask your local council for a Financial Assessment to see if you qualify for help towards your care costs.
This assessment will look at your financial means and calculate whether:

• The council pays for all of your care
• The council pays for some of your care and you pay for the rest
• You pay for all of your care

What happens in a Financial Assessment?

The local authority will review your ability to pay for your care based on your income and assets.  A Financial Assessment Officer will visit you in your home and look at details such as:

• Income
• Savings
• Pensions
• Benefits
• Property
• Stocks and shares

Once you have provided them with all of the information relating to your finances, they will inform you whether you are entitled to have all, some or none of your care paid for. The council will usually help to pay for your care costs if you have assets less than £23,250.

If you are entitled to receive support, this will be provided via a direct payment as part of your personal budget. The council will also reassess your financial situation on an annual basis.

Upon your free initial visit, we can provide you with more in-depth information regarding the funding you may be entitled too should you need this, equally a full costing will be calculated based on your needs, there are no hidden costs and you will know exactly what you are paying.