The cost of caring for a loved one

Sarah Coles · Personal Finance Columnist

Sun, Jun 8, 2025, 11:00 PM 5 min read

It’s Carers’ Week, when we’re encouraged to recognise the effort put in by unpaid carers looking after their loved ones. As more people live longer and need more care, it should also be a chance to consider what we’d do if we found ourselves in this position, and someone we love needed care.

You might want to step in and help, so it’s worth understanding the potential costs — from the extras you’d need at home to the cost of any lost income.

In many cases, the whole family will need to have a frank conversation about how to support the person offering care, as well as the person needing it.

If your family member needs professional care, the question of costs becomes even more pressing. On average, you’ll pay about £50,000 a year for residential care and £66,000 for a nursing home, but the averages hide some big costs, and plenty of people pay well over £100,000 a year.

You may be able to get some help from the state, but there’s a process you need to go through first. It starts with a "needs assessment", done by your local authority, who will work out what care the person needs.

Next you go through a financial assessment, which looks at the assets of the person needing care. If they’re getting care at home, or they’re in a care home temporarily, this assessment won’t include the value of their own home. If they’re going into a care home permanently, it may include their home, unless someone from specific groups also lives there. This includes a partner, any of their children under the age of 18, or a relative who is disabled or over the age of 60.

In England, if they have assets of less than £14,250, the council may pay for care — although it will also take their income into account. If they have between £14,250 and £23,250, they will have to contribute to the cost of care, but if they have assets over £23,250, they’ll need to foot the entire bill.

If your loved one has complex medical needs, they should be assessed for NHS Continuing Healthcare. This can pay for all their care in some cases, but don’t assume they’ll qualify. It’s not enough to have caring needs around the clock, they’ll have to have very high medical needs too, requiring regular intervention from medical experts and professionals.

Elderly woman with her caregiver at nursing home — If someone you love needs care you might want to step in and help, so it’s worth understanding the potential costs. · PIKSEL via Getty Images

If you end up needing to pay for care for someone, there are a few benefits that will help. If they are over state pension age, they could get the attendance allowance — or pension age disability in Scotland. However, this will barely scratch the surface of costs. It means you may need to speak to anyone in your life who might need care, to see what preparations they’ve put in place.

A piece of research we did a while ago found that fewer than half of people thought their loved ones could pay for care from their savings. It means you should consider their pension too. A guaranteed monthly pension income will go towards the cost of care. If they’re using pension drawdown, they may have money in their pension pot that can be used too. For younger people, this often makes sense as a way to save for your own care needs, especially if you’re saving into a workplace pension and your employer is helping to build the pot.

However, the value of the property will often need to be used. Some people will rent the family home out to cover fees, although this is risky because rental income isn’t guaranteed, and will be depleted by maintenance and repairs. You can consider equity release to free up some of the value in the property, but this is expensive. There will be a set up cost, and usually any interest on the loan will roll up, and needs to repaid when the property is sold. There’s also the option of a deferred payment arrangement with the local council, which is a bit like equity release, but run by the council and slightly less expensive.

But for many people, the most sensible option ends up being selling up. You might pay fees from the lump sum as you go along, but it’s worth considering an immediate needs care annuity instead. These pay a fixed amount to the care home every month for the rest of their life, and tend to cover the gap between pension income and the cost of care.

Talking to your loved ones about care, and how they’d pay for it, is difficult, but it’s a far easier conversation well in advance, when they have time to make a plan. It’s much more stressful to try to discuss this at the point they already need care and are starting to panic about how they’re going to pay for it.

Sarah Coles is a personal finance analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown and co-presents Switch Your Money On podcast.

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