What home care costs, and the point a care home is cheaper

What councils pay by the hour

Those are council rates. If you arrange and pay yourself, agencies charge more — Hampshire’s own advice service puts the self-funder range at £23 to £34 an hour.

The crossover

Hertfordshire charges £28 an hour and bills in 15-minute blocks: £7 for a visit up to 20 minutes, £14 up to 35, £21 up to 50, £28 for an hour. Run that forward:

Now compare with a residential place: councils publish between £768 and £1,182 a week, and that includes the room, heating, meals, laundry and someone there at three in the morning.

At four hour-long visits a day, home care costs roughly the same as a care home and covers twenty hours a day less. Families arrive at that arithmetic slowly, usually after the package has been increased three or four times.

Live-in care

Priced weekly, not hourly. Published guidance in West Sussex puts it from around £1,400 a week; Hampshire quotes a range from about £800 to over £1,800 depending on need, rising where two people need care.

Live-in care sits above the council rate for a care home almost everywhere. It buys something different — your own home, one consistent carer. It is not the cheaper option.

The rule that changes everything

Home care is means-tested the same way, with one significant difference: the value of the home you live in is never counted while you live in it. Only savings, investments and income are assessed.

That single rule is why many people qualify for help with home care and then lose it on moving into a residential home — the house that was disregarded starts counting after 12 weeks. See when savings run out.

What to ask an agency

1. What is the hourly rate, and how do you bill part-hours? Some round every visit up.
2. Do you charge more at weekends, evenings and bank holidays?
3. Is travel time between visits charged to me?
4. How many different carers will come in a typical fortnight?
5. What happens if my regular carer is off sick?
6. What is your notice period if I want to stop?

Question four predicts satisfaction. A package delivered by three carers works; the same package delivered by eleven does not, whatever the hourly rate.

Check the agency, not just the price

Home care agencies are registered with the Care Quality Commission and rated on the same five domains as care homes. Read the date the rating was published, not just the word — see what CQC ratings mean.