If you have been assessed by adult social care services and will now use residential or nursing care, the following FAQs will help you to understand how you pay for your care.
Read our "Paying for residential or nursing care" factsheet
When you are organising your care and how to pay for it, there is a good chance you will be part of a couple, in which case, there are a number of things for you to consider:
- Permanent care - If you or your partner are living in a residential or nursing home, you are treated as single people for charging and benefit purposes
- Temporary (respite) care - If you are in residential or nursing care, but your partner is not, you will be assessed as a couple in the same way your benefits are assessed. We will then decide how much to charge for your care, taking into account the needs of your partner who is still living at home, and making sure they have enough income to maintain their usual standard of living.
- Once you are in residential or nursing care on a permanent basis, your partner may become entitled to extra benefits such as Employment and Support Allowance, Universal Credit, Pension Credit, Housing Benefit or Council Tax Reduction. You should contact these departments as soon as you know your circumstances will change.
You should inform the Department of Work and Pensions when you move into a care home and of any subsequent changes in circumstances.
If Social Care Services are helping to pay the care home costs, any Attendance Allowance or the care component of Disability Living Allowance will usually stop after four weeks (or sooner if you have previously been a hospital in-patient or Council funded respite accommodation). If you receive the mobility component of Disability Living Allowance this will continue to be paid.
In general, all income counts towards the cost of your residential care, but you will always be left with at least £24.90 a week to spend as you like.
Any assets or income may not be given away in order to reduce care costs. If this has occurred the local authority may treat you as if you still had the asset.
If you choose a home that is more expensive than our assessment shows you need, then you need to find a way to cover the extra cost on top of the amount we stated you will need for your care following the financial assessment.
This is called a top up fee and can be paid by a third party or by you if you own your own property and it is taken into account in your financial assessment and you have a Deferred Payment Agreement.
If you do not have a Deferred Payment Agreement but are subject to a 12 week property disregard and have the capital to pay this in the first 12 weeks, you can apply to use a top up, but this is at the discretion of the Council.
A further note of caution is that the residential or nursing care you occupy may increase their annual charges, meaning the top up fee also increases. It is important to consider the following:
- If you go into a home which is more expensive than the council would normally pay and fail to keep up the top-up payments, this may result in you having to move to other accommodation
- If you go into a residential home and agree to pay the top-up fee, you will need to consider how you will meet these extra costs. Your benefits and other income will be subject to a financial assessment to pay towards your care charges funded by the council
- If there is a rise in the fees charged by the home, any increases may not be shared equally between the council and you or a third party making a top-up payment.
Therefore, a top up of £25 per week may not sound too much now, but in a few years time this may well have increased considerably.
You should ensure you discuss this point with the home and the person who carries out your care assessment before any move takes place.
You can pay the home directly or you can pay the council and we will pay the home. You can discuss this with your social worker.
If you need residential or nursing care and have savings or assets less than £23,250, Sefton Council will contribute to the cost of your care.
Before we do, we will carry out a social care assessment and financial assessment. Once we have done this, we will know how much you will pay towards your care and how much the Council will come from Sefton Council.
As well as your savings, we also take into account investments, benefits and any property you have a stake in.
Most benefits such as Retirement Pension, Income Support, Guarantee Pension Credit, count in full. However some benefits such as the mobility component of Disability Living Allowance are disregarded completely. There are also benefits that we partially disregard.
The value of your property will not be considered for the first 12 weeks of your permanent placement, but will then be assessed as a capital asset. Under certain circumstances it might be necessary for you to sell the house to pay the cost of the care home.
The value of your house will be disregarded if it is occupied as the main or only home by the following, continuously since before you went into a care home:
(i) your partner, former partner or civil partner, except where you are estranged;
(ii) a relative e.g. parent, son/daughter, who is:
- Aged 60 or over, or
- Is a child of the resident aged under 18, or
- Is incapacitated.
For further information see A Guide to the Deferred Payment Scheme (see below).
If you are paying for your own care and support, read How much to pay for care