Paying for care in a care home

There are three ways that care home fees may be paid.

• The person being cared for (or their family or a friend) pays all the costs for their care. This is called ‘self-funding’
• The local authority pays for some or all of the care, but a relative or friend of a resident can also contribute an additional voluntary fee, known as a third-party top-up fee
• Sometimes the NHS may also contribute to the cost of all or some of the care

The costs of care homes vary greatly and will depend on:

• whether it is a residential home or a nursing home
• whether you have a single or shared room
• whether you have an en-suite bathroom
• many other factors

For a guide to current average costs in the South East of England you can use the residential care costs calculator on the Paying for Care website. In March 2024, the average cost of residential care in a care home in the South East of England for a year was around £50,000. That’s over a quarter of a million pounds for five years.

If your care is being arranged and funded, or part-funded, by Hampshire County Council, we will follow our Choice of Accommodation policy.

The rates we pay for care homes fall into the following bands:

Before we decide if you are eligible for funding, we will first carry out an assessment of your care needs. It is recommended that you contact us when your capital reaches £40,000 or less to allow time for us to assess your care and support needs. Please phone 0300 555 1386.

If you have ‘eligible needs’ that qualify for help from us, your care practitioner will ask our Customer Financial Management Team to contact you to carry out a financial assessment.

If you have:

• more than £23,250 in assessable savings (usually including the value of your home), you will need to pay the full cost of care yourself. (There are times when the value of your home is not taken into account. See information under ‘What if I own a property’ and ‘Can you disregard the value of my property?’)
• between £14,250 and £23,250 in assessable savings, we will look at your savings and assessable income to work out what contribution you will pay towards your care costs. Savings between £14,250 and £23,250 are assessed as if you have an assumed (or ‘tariff’) income. For every £250 or part of £250 above £14,250, you are treated as if you have an extra £1 a week income
  Example: If you have capital of £14,750 you are treated as having £2 a week income (two lots of £250)
• less than £14,250 in assessable savings, we will take into account any assessable income you have to work out what contribution you will pay towards the cost of your care

If you feel we have not taken account of something important in the financial assessment, phone the Customer Financial Management Team on 01962 845556. If you feel you have been unfairly charged for any other reason, phone us on 0300 555 1386.

If you still feel the charge is more than you can afford, you may want to seek independent advice from the Society of Later Life Advisors. Phone 0333 2020 454.

We will tell you if we believe you are entitled to claim any benefits. It is important that you claim any benefits to which you are entitled as we include them in the charge we ask you to pay. We will offer to help you make a claim if you need us to.

You can find out what benefits you may be entitled to on the Connect to Support Hampshire website.

If you are a permanent resident, and we are funding your care, you will keep a minimum of £24.90 each week. You may keep more than this depending on the type of income you receive. You can also choose to keep more than this if you own a property and have a deferred payment agreement.

If you are a temporary resident, there may be additional allowances we can make if you live alone and have ongoing household expenses to pay such as rent or service charges.

If the Council is contributing towards your care home fees, we will tell you how much we think your care should cost. The total amount – including our contribution and yours – is called your personal budget. We will offer you at least one care home place that meets your care needs for that amount of money. See our Choice of Accommodation Policy for more information.

If you’d prefer a more expensive home, you may still be able to move there if someone pays the difference between the fees and your personal budget. This is a top-up fee.

You can’t usually pay your own top-up fees; they’re generally paid by a third party, such as a friend, relative or charity. 

See our Top up payments page for more information.

When arranging your permanent care, we will ensure that accommodation is:

• the same type of accommodation as agreed in your support plan
• suitable to meet your assessed eligible needs
• available
• at a cost that does not exceed your agreed personal budget unless we have agreed to a top-up
• offered by a care provider who agrees to our terms and conditions for provision of care and support.

First, we will offer you a place in a County Council care home that meets your needs and preferences. If a suitable place is not available, we will offer you up to two independent sector care homes. Please note that the offer of a place at a County Council care home cannot guarantee to be held open pending an independent sector placement.

Offers made will take account of your eligible needs and preferences. Any preference for a geographical area will need to consider the availability of suitable care homes in that area.

Full details of the Choice of Accommodation Policy are available on our website.

Or you can find your own care home accommodation. But it will need to meet your assessed needs and be within your agreed personal budget.

Payments should be made directly to the County Council (usually by fixed direct debit or payment of a four-weekly invoice).

There may be a delay in sending your first invoice for your care charges. This is while we sort out what you have to pay for your care. We normally send invoices at a basic standard amount for your care until we have been able to work out your actual charge. An adjusted invoice will be sent once you have received notification of your charge.

If you want more information you should speak to your Care Practitioner. If you fail to make your agreed payments for your care we may take legal action to reclaim the money owing.

The rate we agree to pay and the rates of state benefits are normally reviewed every year and any changes are effective from April. However, it is important that you inform the Customer Financial Management Officers in the Residential Team dealing with your financial assessment promptly when your finances change. They will tell you if there is any change to the contribution we ask you to make to the cost of your accommodation.

If someone is paying a top up for you, we will advise them if any price rise will require a change in their top-up payment. At the point of review, the Care Practitioner will check to ensure we are still paying the amount required to meet your eligible needs. Anything over that amount will be your contribution and top up.

If you are a temporary resident in a care home, we will not include the value of the home you live in. However, if you own any property or land other than the home you live in, we will take the value into account.

If you are a permanent resident in a care home, we will take your home into account. We will usually ignore its value for up to 12 weeks, starting from the date you first became a permanent resident. We call this the '12 week property disregard'. You will have to contribute towards your care costs during this period from income and other capital. You will also have to continue to maintain the property and meet any ongoing costs that arise, although we can allow for household expenses during this period.

During the ’12 week property disregard’ you will have to decide how you will fund your ongoing care when the disregard period ends. You will need to take advice at the earliest opportunity to decide how you are going to pay for your ongoing care.

There are various ways to fund your care:

• You may decide to raise the money you need by renting out your home. The rental income may allow you to fund your ongoing care. Whether you can do this will depend on your income, how much the fees are and whether anyone else can help you. You will need to consider expenses such as the maintenance and insurance of the property
• You may have family or friends who are willing to contribute towards the cost of your care
• You may decide to raise the money by taking out a loan, taking out an annuity, a home income plan or some other type of equity release scheme
• You may decide to apply for a deferred payment agreement

We strongly recommend that you seek independent financial advice before making any decisions about funding your care.

If you are a permanent resident, your former home will not normally be taken into account if it remains occupied by:

• your partner or spouse
• a relative aged over 60
• a relative aged under 60 who is incapacitated
• a lone parent who is the person's estranged or divorced partner
• a child of the resident aged under 18

If you give away property or sell it for less than its true value to try to avoid paying the full cost of your fees, we will calculate your charge as if you still own the property. There are actions we can take if we think you have deliberately given away or sold property for less than its worth.

Read more about deprivation of assets

Only people who normally live in Hampshire can apply for financial help from Hampshire County Council. Anyone who wants to move into a care home in Hampshire from another part of the country and needs financial help with the fees should start by contacting the adult social care department of the local authority where they normally live.

Anyone who wants to move from Hampshire to a home in another part of England and Wales, and needs financial help with the fees from Hampshire County Council, should contact us on 0300 555 1386.

You may be eligible for funding through a health fund called NHS continuing healthcare. This is care that is arranged and funded solely by the NHS for individuals who are not in hospital but have been assessed as having a ‘primary health need’. There are very high eligibility criteria for this payment.

If you think this may apply to you, you should speak to your doctor or district nurse.

You may still be eligible for NHS-funded nursing care if you are not eligible for NHS continuing healthcare, but

• have been assessed as needing care from a registered nurse and
• you live in a nursing home

The NHS pays a flat rate directly to the nursing home towards the cost of your nursing care. It won’t pay for the other care home costs, such as the accommodation.

If the council is funding your care

HCC Care, our in-house provider, will apply for NHS-funded nursing care and let you know if you have been successful. Any invoices we send you will not show the NHS-funded nursing care element. We bill you for the cost of your personal care and accommodation only.

If you are self-funding

If you are eligible for NHS-funded nursing care your care provider must apply for this within 28 days. This will ensure you are not charged for any of the nursing care elements of the care you receive.

You will be a self-funder if any of the following apply to you:

• you have chosen not to approach Hampshire County Council for help
• you have chosen not to be financially assessed by the Council or provide all of the information requested
• your care needs have been assessed but you are not currently eligible for adult social care services
• your care needs have been assessed and you are eligible for social care support but your savings or assets are above £23,250

If you are paying the full costs of your care yourself, it is still a good idea to contact us for an assessment of your needs. We can explain the full range of services available to you. It may be that we can help you to stay at home rather than choosing residential care.

You should also contact us for advice if your savings and assets are currently above the capital threshold but may go below this threshold while you are living in a care home.

We always recommend that you seek independent financial advice and that you check whether you are entitled to claim for any benefits.

Paying for care can be an expensive and open-ended commitment. If you are paying the full cost of care yourself, you should seek independent financial advice. Look for a financial adviser with specialist qualifications on advising on the funding of long-term care. They will be able to explain all the costs and risks involved and should be able to help with other things such as setting up a Lasting Power of Attorney.

If you are currently receiving care it is still advisable to seek specialist information and advice as there may be options available to you to protect your interests and those of your family.

MoneyHelper gives advice about all aspects of paying for care. Phone 0800 138 7777.

The Society of Later Life Advisers (SOLLA) is a not-for-profit consumer organisation that aims to assist consumers and their families in finding accredited independent financial advisers who understand financial needs in later life. Phone 0333 2020 454.

If you have more than £23,250 in assessable savings and/or capital (usually including the value of your home), you will need to pay the full cost of care yourself.

It is particularly important that you and your family consider what will happen if your savings were to fall below the ‘capital threshold’ of £23,250.

Hampshire County Council, as your local authority, will assess your care and support needs. You will always be offered at least one care home place that will meet your eligible needs. However, the County Council will not necessarily pay for your current accommodation if this is more expensive than we would usually expect to pay to meet your assessed needs.

If you wish to stay in your current accommodation and decline a reasonable offer from the County Council, you may need to ask your family or another third party to pay a ‘top-up’ fee. A top-up is where a third party pays the difference between what the County Council would reasonably expect to pay, and the rate charged by your chosen care home.

The County Council recommends that you get in touch with us when you have £40,000 of funds remaining. You should call us on 0300 555 1386.

This is to allow enough time for us to assess your care and supports needs and for a financial assessment to be undertaken. It also allows enough time for conversations about:

• whether the care is at the same rate the County Council would pay
• if not, whether someone is able to pay the difference (third party top-up)
• if an alternative care placement needs to be sought.

If the Council is paying for some or all of your care and you have any queries in relation to payments, please contact Adults' Health and Care by completing an online enquiry form or by calling 0300 555 1386.