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Care homes and self-funding

ended 30. May 2022

At 09:30 today, the Office for National Statistics published a detailed report on the percentage of people in care homes who are self-funding. You can scan the main points >> here <<. In your experience:

  • Are a growing number of people using the (often considerable) equity in their homes to self-fund their care?
  • Are people's pensions generally enough to fund their move to a care home or does their property usually come into play?
  • Are people aware of deferred payment schemes, where the council pays for your care and then sells your home after death?
  • How often do care home fees cause rifts or even legal action between family members?

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2 responses from the Newspage community

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Scott Gallacher
Director at Rowley Turton
An increasing number of people are having to use their hard-earned savings to pay for their care. Anyone with more than £23,250 in savings, investments or property (apart from your own home in some circumstances) normally has to pay for their care themselves. And the government has frozen this £23,250 limit for over ten years. Whereas had they increased this in line with inflation, the limit would now be over £35,000. Hence, today many more people are having to use their savings to pay for their care than previously. In effect, this is a stealth tax on the cost of care.
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Joshua Gerstler
Chartered Financial Planner at The Orchard Practice
It is quite common nowadays for us to include the cost of care in our clients' financial plans. Sometimes this will come from savings and investments and in other cases it may be paid for via pensions. Often the equity in a client's home will be used. Our clients often allow about £60,000 per year for this. It's no surprise the South East had the highest number of self-funders in care homes.