Self-funding your long-term care: your options

• You don’t qualify for local council funding or Health and Social Care Trusts, in Northern Ireland.
• You want to improve your care at home by paying a little more.
• You need to make up a care fees shortfall while the local council is funding your care during a deferred payment agreement period.

Before you do anything, check you’re claiming all the State and other benefits you’re entitled to – some of these aren’t means tested.

Make sure you’ve checked out all the local council, or in Northern Ireland, Health and Social Care Trusts, and NHS funding options too.

If you move into a care home and your property is left empty, you should receive full exemption from Council Tax/Rates until it’s sold.

Other questions to consider include:

• Is the care you’re choosing affordable over the long term?
• Have you had an assessment of your needs from the local council, or Health and Social Care (HSC) Trusts in Northern Ireland, and would they meet the fees of a care home you’ve chosen if you had to fall back on their funding?
• Or would the care provider continue to accommodate you at local council rates?

This is designed to help if you need care immediately. In return for investing a lump sum, you get a guaranteed income for life.

Selling your home and buying a cheaper one could free up money to pay for your care

If you need to live in a care home permanently and need to use the value in your property to fund your care home fees, you may be entitled to financial support from your local council for up to 12 weeks. 

If you’re eligible, the local council must not include the value of your property in your financial assessment for 12 weeks. This is called a 12-week property disregard. Depending on the level of your income and other savings, your local council may contribute to your care home fees during this time, or until you sell your property, if sooner.

This gives you a lump sum or steady income to pay for your care using some of the money that’s tied up in your house, while you carry on living there.

The money must be repaid at a later stage when the house is sold.

It’s important to only consider an equity-release scheme when you’ve looked at all the other options.

You can use investment bonds to help pay for your care.

However, there’s no guarantee that the returns will cover the cost of your care, and your money is tied up for a long time. So, they’re not generally one of the better options.

In a sale-and-rent-back scheme, you sell your home at a discount.

In return, you stay living there as a rent-paying tenant for a set length of time. This is called a fixed term.

This might seem tempting if you want to stay in your home and need to pay for care.

However, only consider a sale-and-rent-back scheme as a last resort. This is because:

• you’ll get less money for your home than you would if you sold it on the open market
• you’ll no longer own your home and you will have to pay rent – this might use up money you want to spend on care
• your rent could go up during and after the fixed term of your tenancy
• you might have to leave your home after your tenancy agreement ends
• you could be evicted if you break the rules of your tenancy agreement – for example, if you fall behind with your rent
• if the person or company buying your home gets into financial difficulties, your home could be repossessed.

It’s important not to sign a new sale-and-rent-back agreement without first getting independent advice about your other options.

• Rent out your home.
• Cash in savings and shares.
• Sell things you own, such as art, antiques or collectibles.
• Check for insurance policies that could cover care costs.

In some areas, there are schemes called ‘Homeshare’.

This involves having someone share your home in exchange for some low-level support, such as cooking meals or running errands.

This won’t be suitable if you need more complex care.