In the UK at present, social care is means tested. In England and Northern Ireland if the person needing care has assets over £23,250 they must pay for their care. However, if you intend to continue living in your home (rather than moving into a care home), your home isn’t considered amongst the assets that are assessed. In Wales the threshold is £24,000 for care at home or £50,000 for care in a care home. In Scotland the threshold is £27,250, with personal care and nursing care free, but councils have discretion to charge for other services.

The route to understanding what a person needing care may be entitled to is to request a Needs Assessment from the person’s local authority : https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/social-care-and-support-guide/money-work-and-benefits/when-the-council-might-pay-for-your-care/. This means that the person’s local council will assess the person’s financial situation and let them know what they are entitled to from them (if anything).

The local authority will then develop your care and support plan based upon your needs, and administer the budget in either a direct payment, whereby you can source and arrange live-in care of your choice, or by way of the authority sourcing and arranging your care for you which will often be a domiciliary (hourly) care service which the family may not deem adequate.

• Increasingly, and more accurately known as a ‘Lifetime Mortgages’. This is where major insurance companies including Aviva and Legal & General lend cash, (typically through specialist intermediaries who are authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to provide advice), which can be used for any purpose including the funding of 24/7 live in care, secured against the value of your home. The annual interest on the loan can either be serviced every year annually (simple interest) from the capital borrowed or from other sources, or allowed to roll up (compound interest). In the case of the former, the original loan, or in the caser of the latter, the original loan plus the interest on it, is settled up by your estate at the end of your life, or both your lives,  which will reduce the value of your estate for the purposes of inheritance tax (IHT).  Whilst you and your spouse are guaranteed to stay in the home for the whole of your lives, the roll up of higher interest rates in the past has sometimes meant the home was ‘lost’ to the next generation. This is less likely to happen now that typical annual interest rates are down to 2.5% on average, and the option to service the debt every year has now been mandated by the FCA.
  • The Live in Care Hub has reviewed the whole of the Equity Release / Lifetime Mortgage market and following this analysis have concluded that we will work in partnership with Responsible Life https://www.responsiblelife.co.uk/ which has a broad range of funding options available to you. This link will take you directly to a page with further information on Equity Release with Frequently Asked Questions answered by Responsible Life and also to their Equity Release calculator.
  • There are other ways to utilise some of the value of your home too, which may include downsizing and using the spare capital to fund your care. Alternatively making an arrangement with family to provide the capital that you need. You can also approach your bank for a secured loan against your assets.