It’s only natural that you have questions

Some lifetime health insurance policies can provide financial support towards the cost of home care, however, this varies according to the specific policy and the provider.

If it is important to you that your health insurance policy makes provision for your later care needs, it may be worth contacting your insurance provider to confirm in what circumstances your policy would pay out, should you need it to.

Regardless of how your care will be funded, you will need a care assessment to apply for home care.

The purpose of the assessment is to understand your individual care and support needs, as well as get to know you as a person. This enables your home care team to understand what is important to you, and what you are hoping that your care package will enable you to achieve.

Your care assessment will provide the blueprint for the home care services you need, ensure that your chosen home care provider can meet your needs, and is the first step to arranging a care package that will enable you to thrive in your own home.

The way you access home care packages may depend upon who will pay for the care and support you need.

If you are a self-funder and are covering the full cost of your home care, you have complete freedom to choose the home care provider and home care package which suits you. It can be overwhelming to try and narrow down the range of apparently similar home care services on offer, but thankfully there are several independent resources which you can turn to for an unbiased perspective on the care on offer.

For the assurance that your chosen home care provider has been assessed as delivering safe and high-quality care, look to industry regulators the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The CQC regularly and routinely assesses all regulated home care providers to ensure that they are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led, rating them as Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement or Inadequate, and publish their results online.

For independently verified reviews from home care customers and their families, it is worth checking out homecare.co.uk. All CQC-registered home care providers are listed on the site, with customers rating aspects of the home care they receive, and sharing their feedback. Home Care reviews can be a good source of information about the customer experience from both the care recipient’s perspective and that of their loved ones.

Your Local Authority will also have a number of paper and online resources to support your search for local home care providers who can meet your individual care and support needs. If your home care is partly or entirely funded by your Local Authority, the Adult Social Care team will discuss their recommendations with you and those involved in making decisions about your care.

Whilst there isn’t a ‘home care grant’ as such, there are several specific funding schemes which you can apply to for financial support with your home care, subject to eligibility. These schemes are not means-tested and could help to offset the cost of your home care if you do not qualify for Local Authority funding, there. These include:

• Attendance Allowance – For those over state pension age living with an illness or disability, who need extra help to live at home.
• Personal Independence Payment – Support for eligible individuals under state pension age who live with a long-term illness or disability.
• NHS Fast-Track CHC scheme – For those whose health is declining rapidly, and need immediate support with end-of-life care, to enable them to remain in their own home.

When searching for care at home which meets your needs, it is first helpful to understand how home care packages are funded.

There are three main routes through which home care services can be funded:

• Self-funded – This is where you are responsible for covering the full cost of your home care.
• Local Authority funded – Depending upon your financial circumstances, your Local Authority may make a contribution towards, or cover, the cost of the home care services you receive.
• Specific funding schemes – Funding to support specific care requirements which meet the scheme’s eligibility criteria.

To find out if you are eligible for financial support towards the cost of your home care, it is best to start by speaking with the Adult Social Care Team at your Local Authority. They will compare your financial circumstances against criteria set by the Government, and advise whether you qualify for full or part funding for your home care.

Whilst the funding criteria is subject to change, you will generally be considered eligible for some financial support from your Local Authority if you have less than £23,250 in savings and assets. The lower the value of your financial savings and assets, the more support you will be entitled to receive.

If your Local Authority is providing financial support for your home care, they will either source your care package for you, or provide you with direct payments from which you can fund your own care. If you are in receipt of direct payments, you will need to evidence how and where this money has been spent, and how this has supported care requirements.