Self-funding

"I need more information about funding my own care."

Arranging care as a self-funder

Do you want to continue to live at home?

We know it’s important to keep your independence and stay living in your own home for as long as possible.

We’ve put together some great advice, along with details of many services and support groups that can help you with this.

Learn how to get help and support to stay independent

If you have capital (savings and assets) worth £23,250 or over, or a weekly income high enough to pay for care home fees, you will not qualify for funding from us. Instead you will need to pay for your own care. This is called ‘self-funding’.

As a self funder you can choose how to arrange your care. This can be either:

privately through local services, without involving us
by asking us to arrange and pay for your care, then billing you separately.

Private care at home

If you decide to arrange for a private carer to look after you at home, the cost will vary depending on where you live.

However you can typically expect to pay around:

£20 per hour for a carer to visit you in your home
£650 a week to have a live in carer. This may be more if you need a lot of care.

There are 2 main ways to arrange your own home care. You can:

Use a home care agency

Home care agencies employ trained carers and arrange for them to visit you in your home.

Agencies are a popular option as they:

manage the entire service for you
tailor their care around your needs.

However some disadvantages are:

you may not always have the same carer
their fees can be expensive.

You can find advice on how to choose a home care agency on the Which? website.

Employ your own carer

You could hire your own carer to take on various responsibilities around your home. These are sometimes known as a private carer or personal assistant.

There are advantages of hiring your own carer, such as you can:

choose a carer that is compatible with you
decide what roles they perform, such as personal care or helping you get out and about
save money on agency fees.

However, if you employ a carer, you will then have the legal responsibility of being an employer. This means you’ll need to make sure you have some things in place, such as:

a contract of employment
a way to pay them - you might choose to employ a payroll provider to do this for you
adequate insurance for employing staff
arrangements in place to cover their holidays and any sick days they may need.

Find out more about employing a private carer on the Which? website.

You may also find it useful to read our guidance on employing staff.

Private care at a care home

There are many care homes in East Riding open to private paying guests.

There are 2 types of care home:

residential homes, who have staff that help with everyday tasks, such as getting dressed. They also supply all your meals
nursing homes, will help with everyday tasks and supply your meals, but they also offer 24-hour nursing care.

The price you pay will vary according to where you live and the type of care you need. To give you an idea of the costs, a room in a:

residential home costs around £600 a week
nursing home costs around £840 a week.

Find a care home on our local community and care services directory

Care provided by the council

If you would like us to arrange your care, the first step is to ask us to request a needs assessment. This is so we can work with you to decide what care you need.

You can also ask us for a financial assessment to make sure you do not qualify for any help with costs.

What you’ll pay if we arrange your care

If you ask us to arrange your care for you, you will be charged an:

admin fee of £218 at the start of your care
annual arrangement fee each year of £218 on the anniversary that your care started (until you stop receiving care).

Please note: Fee amounts as of April 2022. Fees are reviewed on a yearly basis and are subject to change.

These fees cover our costs to:

buy care and support services on your behalf
raise invoices to recharge you and collecting payment
manage your accounts
arrange quality assurance checks of care providers.

If you want us to stop arranging your care

You can ask us to stop arranging your care for you at any time. However as the majority of the costs are incurred when starting or ending this service, we are unable to offer a refund.

Should you decide to return to us at any time, you will be charged the full arrangement fee again.

Deferred payment agreement

Additional care home costs