Home care or a care home? The arithmetic, and the point it flips

In short: the flip happens at roughly four hours of care a day. At that point home care costs about the same as a residential care home and covers twenty hours a day less. But the means test treats the two differently, and that often matters more than the price.

The arithmetic

Using Hertfordshire’s published rate of £28 an hour and its 15-minute billing:

Against that, councils publish £768 to £1,182 a week for a standard residential place, and that includes the room, heating, all meals, laundry, and someone awake at three in the morning.

What the hourly rate hides

Hourly rates vary less than families expect: £22.12 in Sandwell, £25.84 in Solihull, £25.94 to £27.83 across Nottinghamshire’s districts, £28.00 in Hertfordshire. Self-funders pay more — Hampshire’s advice service puts the private range at £23 to £34.

What varies enormously is how the time is billed. Ask three things:

1. Do you round part-hours up? Hertfordshire bills a 21-minute visit as 30 minutes.
2. Is travel time between visits charged to me?
3. What are the weekend, evening and bank holiday rates?

A package that looks 10% cheaper on the hourly rate can be 25% more expensive after rounding and travel.

The rule that changes the whole comparison

At home, the value of your house is never counted in the means test. In a care home, it is counted after 12 weeks unless a partner or a qualifying relative still lives there.

For a homeowner with modest savings that single rule can be the difference between the council contributing and paying the entire bill. It is the most consequential fact in this comparison and it is almost never mentioned alongside the price.

Work your own position out with the calculator, and read what happens when savings run out before deciding.

Four things that decide it besides money

Nights. Care at home covers the hours it covers. A care home covers the other sixteen. If the fear is a fall at 4am, no home care package answers it short of live-in with waking nights.

How many different carers. A package delivered by three carers works. The same package delivered by eleven does not, whatever the hourly rate. Ask the number, not the promise.

The house itself. Stairs, a bathroom upstairs, no downstairs toilet. Adaptations can cost thousands and take months, and some houses cannot be adapted at all.

The carer at home. Where a spouse or adult child provides the unpaid hours between visits, count that honestly. Carer’s Allowance is £86.45 a week in 2026/27 for 35 hours of care — which values that work at £2.47 an hour.

What to do next

1. Get a care needs assessment from the council. Free, your right, regardless of savings.
2. Run the calculator twice: once as home care, once as a care home. The property rule alone will often change the answer.
3. If you are still at home and paying for yourself, check you are claiming Attendance Allowance — £76.70 or £114.60 a week, not means-tested.
4. When you do look at homes, ask each one whether it will keep a resident at the council rate if savings later fall below £23,250. Get it in writing.