Ways to pay for care

This page covers;
• Using allowances and pensions
• Buying a guaranteed income for life to pay for care
• Options for using the value of property

Paying for social care in older age can be costly and people are often surprised to find they must pay much of the cost themselves. People who pay for care are often referred to as ‘self-funders’. Care often starts off as casual, unpaid family help with occasional paid-for care. As people need more care at home or move into a care home, the weekly costs can become very high and even those with comfortable savings worry about the future costs of care.

George is involved in stroke research. A taxi is arranged to take him to meetings and then return him home afterwards.

Age at interview 42

Gender Male

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Yeah, and they took my name, they took my name from there, so they send me invitation to come, to come in a meeting.

Yeah and they send, they send cab here to take me to there, take me to a meeting.

And you go every Tuesday?

Not every Tuesday, every, every month. They tend to every two months.

Okay.

So, when they come to take me here and they bring me back, they bring me back.

By taxi, they take you by taxi.

Taxi, yeah.

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People pay for social care in different ways – from pensions, savings and investments; selling or renting out their property as well as using benefits such as Attendance Allowance.

It wasn’t until Isobel went back to her maiden surname that she started receiving Christmas cards and an invitation to a workshop from the birth cohort study. Before this, she hadn’t known she was in the study because her parents never spoke about it.

Age at interview 66

Gender Female

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Well, I’m looking at it from health aspects and different things and how you’re like impacted how you are today but as I had no information or any information that went with the study, you know, I had no information about it at all, my mother and father never spoke about it. So I don’t have any idea what the, the plans were or what their, their future aims were anything like that.

Because this was the first contact I’d had and I was in my 60s I didn’t understand the background of it all so I had no background information about it at all other than a couple of Christmas cards with photographs none of which I’m in and, you know, that were on the front of the Christmas cards and that was the first I knew about it as a 60 year old woman.

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Attendance Allowance

Attendance Allowance is a benefit for people who need help with everyday activities because they are physically or mentally disabled and over state pension age. There is a lower and higher rate of Attendance Allowance. It is not means-tested so everyone who has care needs that meet the conditions will receive this benefit. Applications for Attendance Allowance should be sent to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on the relevant claim form. See more about Attendance Allowance in Benefits and other help with funding care.

Pensions

Some people cover the cost of their care with their pension income although people told us they had to dip into savings as their care needs increased. Some couples said their pensions were very different, often the woman’s pension was smaller than her husband’s. This can affect how they share the costs of care.

Malcolm received a letter about a study and then went to talk to a researcher with a medical background.

Age at interview 75

Gender Male

Age at diagnosis 48

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Yes, it was a lot of detail so I haven’t retained, I haven’t retained all of it or very much of it in fact, a lot of detail about how the links work and how the heart works and how the links between heart valves and, and what happens in the body with- with the heart to cause maybe dementia or to maybe bring on dementia. So yes it was very thoroughly explained to me and I understood it at the time.

Was it explained on, on a leaflet or by, by research nurse or doctor?

By the consultant who was doing it, I presume he was a consultant he didn’t actually tell me what his job was but I think he’d been involved in, in, in the hospital cardio, cardiac department of the hospital. He was part of, I don’t know if he was a surgeon or if he was a consultant or if he’s a GP but he’s certainly a, I think he was a doctor.

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Buying a guaranteed income for life to pay the costs of care (an Immediate Needs Annuity)

Many people do not know that there are financial products that guarantee an income for life to pay for care costs. These products are called immediate needs annuities or immediate need care fee payment plans. The person needing care pays an upfront lump sum for a policy that pays for care until the end of their life. The cost depends on a person’s age, health and medical history. It is called an ‘immediate needs’ annuity because it is only available for people who already have care needs. They can be tax free. It is essential to talk to a registered later life adviser before buying one of these policies. For more about this, see What is an immediate needs annuity?. People we spoke to who bought an immediate needs annuity said they were very happy with the process and the peace of mind it gave to the family and the person receiving care. But it is not something that would be right for everyone.

Gareth has a family history of high cholesterol, so he likes to keep track of it. The study he is taking part in is one way of doing that.

Age at interview 49

Gender Male

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I have got a family history of high cholesterol, so I’ve always been interested in keeping an eye on my cholesterol. And my dad did die young. He died in his 50s, so- of complications of heart disease. And my two sisters both have very high cholesterol. So I’ve always been interested in my cholesterol and metabolism and that side of it, and just keeping track of it. I’ve never had any problems with it. it’s always been mid to low range. So it was just a, as I say, it’s one of these things I like to measure, and if you don’t measure it, you don’t know when it’s changed, you know.

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The value of a home or other property

The value of a person’s home will not be included in a financial assessment by the local council if the person needing care, or their husband, wife or someone else who is a dependent, continues to live there. More about this in What is a financial assessment?. But if the person needing care lives alone and then moves into a care home, they may need to think about how to use the value of their home to help pay towards care costs. It might be possible for the local council to pay the care fees as a loan which will be paid back to them when the person’s home is sold. This is called a deferred payment agreement. Not everyone is eligible for a deferred payment agreement so it is worth checking with the local council.

Ian feels the way he has been treated while taking part in the cohort study has been fantastic. He says, keep the good work going.

Age at interview 54

Gender Male

Age at diagnosis 51

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Keep the good work going, yeah. You know, I like the way that I’ve been respected, and I like the way that I’ve been handled and spoken to.

But I think the medical profession, the way they’ve been with me, has been fantastic, and if they can be like that with everyone then they’ve got a great chance in the future of being successful.

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Parting with the family home can be worrying for people paying for care and their relatives. The people we spoke to choose different ways of dealing with this. Some left the property unoccupied for a few months so that their relative could decide about selling when they were ready. Others sold the property as soon as they could and used the money to pay care home fees. Some children of people paying for care had Lasting Power of Attorney and decided not to tell their parents about selling their home because they thought it would be too stressful.

A birth cohort study is Steve’s first and only experience of medical research. He is happy to share information about his experiences, but he doesn’t plan to donate his body parts after death for research.

Age at interview 64

Gender Male

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No I haven’t participated in anything else, this is the only thing.

Okay.

I mean there is a limit to how much participating, I mean, I don’t wanna give my, when I die I don’t wanna give my body parts away to, for medical research, I don’t want that. So, you know, there is a limit to how far I’ll go on helping with assistance, you know, I’m happy to converse and tell you anything you need to know about my previous life and my, you know, my anxieties and all the stuff that leads up to now but I don’t wanna, there are certain things I wouldn’t do.

Okay.

And that’s one of them.

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Families have to decide how to look after quite large amounts of money after selling a home or other property. Some people decided to keep matters simple and put all the money in one bank account even though they knew they would not be getting the best returns. A few people told us they consulted financial advisers to help decide how to look after the money.

Keith received a letter about a renal (kidney) study via his GP. He met with the researcher to discuss it and to sign some forms.

Age at interview 68

Gender Male

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I did via the GP asking if I wanted to volunteer. I did volunteer and that’s a smaller-scale operation than the [biobanking study] and initially I went for a meeting with a researcher who was doing the research on [renal cohort study], lasted about an hour, again lots of information and lots of forms to sign giving my permission for the use of the data and then I suppose the interview took an hour and had a series of tests, blood tests, urine tests heart, heartbeat pulse rate and a series of questions, quite a lot of questions about how I was affected by only having one working kidney.

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Some families rented out their parents’ home and used the rent to contribute towards care home fees. However, others said that renting seemed complicated and they just wanted the finances to be as simple as possible so they sold the property.

When Alan Y had new symptoms that he wondered might be related to a transient ischaemic attack (TIA), it was reassuring to know he could talk to the research team who had access to his medical files and could advise him.

Age at interview 68

Gender Male

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It was, I’ve had regular check-ups with them, so and regular contact with them over the years. But it was last year, I had a cataract removed off of this eye and I didn’t get back the vision that they thought I would get back, so further investigation. Was it a TIA in the back of the eye or was it something else?’ And they were able to eliminate the TIA part of it, so it was something to do with the optic nerve. So that was really interesting to be part, still be part of that.

And how do you feel the fact that you have a number, a contact that if you, kind of that you can call?

Oh, I think it’s reassuring and it’s reassuring because I know they can get on the computer or open the draw and my file is there and they can go, Oh yes, yes, you had tha.

Okay.

And they will call me back in as they did with this eye thing. Come in, have the tes.

Okay and they provide advice over the phone?

Yeah, yeah, advice and the advice is normally, Come in and we’ll see yo. So, it’s always, it’s always there. I know I can go in. It will get seen. They’ll do all the tests. They looked at my eye and did a scan and, and found there wasn’t a TIA there. It was something else.

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