Benefits in care homes
What happens to my benefits when I enter a care home?
Some benefits are not affected by being in a care home, although you will usually have to use them to contribute to your care home fees when we assess your payments. When you enter a care home (either temporarily or permanently) you can continue to receive the following benefits:
- State Pension
- The mobility component of Disability Living Allowance
- Incapacity Benefit
- Severe Disablement Allowance
- Bereavement Allowance
- Widowed Parent’s Allowance
- Widow’s Pension
- Widowed Mother’s Allowance.
However, your entitlement to the following benefits may stop or change:
- Attendance Allowance
- The care component of Disability Living Allowance
- Carer’s Allowance
- Pension Credit
- Income Support
- Employment and Support Allowance
- Housing Benefit
- Industrial Injury and War Disablement Benefits
- Winter Fuel Benefit
If you need help to ensure that you are receiving all the benefits you are entitled to, you can contact the Joint Visiting Team for assistance.
What happens to Attendance Allowance and the care part of Disability Living Allowance?
Attendance Allowance and the care component of Disability Living Allowance are benefits paid to people who need certain supervision or help with personal care (regardless of their financial situation). For most people, these benefits are only paid for the first 28 days of your stay in a care home (whether temporary or permanent) and will be treated as income which you should use to meet your contributions when we work out what you must pay. Previous periods spent in hospital or another care home during the same year count towards this 28 day limit, so these benefits may stop even before the 29th day of your stay in your current care home. If these benefits are suspended while you are in a care home you will be entitled to receive them if you leave the care home to return home, even if it is only for one night.
There are some groups of people in care homes who can receive Attendance Allowance or the care part of the Disability Living Allowance after 28 days. They are:
- People who are paying for their own care
- People who have deferred payments, and
- People in a non-NHS hospice.
What happens to the mobility part of Disability Living Allowance?
The mobility part of Disability Living Allowance is a benefit paid to certain people with severe difficulty in getting around, regardless of their financial situation. If you are entitled to the mobility part of Disability Living Allowance, you will continue to receive it during your stay in a care home, and you will not have to use it to contribute to your care home costs.
What happens to Carer’s Allowance?
To qualify for Carer’s Allowance, you must spend at least 35 hours a week looking after someone who receives Attendance Allowance or Disability Living Allowance (care part) at the middle or highest rate. When the Attendance Allowance or Disability Living Allowance (care part) of the person you care for stops, so does the Carer’s Allowance. If the person you care for continues to receive Attendance Allowance or Disability Living Allowance because, for example, they are self-funding, Carer’s Allowance will stop after four weeks from the date they go into the care home. This is because the Carer’s Allowance rules only allow a set number of weeks for a break in caring. You are allowed a 12 week break in any 26 week period but only four weeks of that is allowed for temporary breaks in care, for example, because someone is in a care home on a respite stay or on holiday. The other eight weeks are allowed for hospital stays for either the carer or the person who is cared for.
Some carers will be getting extra Income Support, Employment and Support Allowance or Pension Credit because they are entitled to Carer’s Allowance. When the entitlement to Carer’s Allowance stops, the extra amount in Income Support, Employment and Support Allowance or Pension Credit only continues for a further eight weeks.
What happens to Pension Credit?
- If you enter a care home temporarily, your Pension Credit will generally stay the same. If you are part of a couple, you will continue to be paid as a couple. If you are receiving an extra payment of Pension Credit based on receipt of Attendance Allowance or the care part of Disability Living Allowance, this will stop when the Attendance Allowance or Disability Living Allowance stops. If you are receiving extra payments of Pension Credit based on receipt of Carer’s Allowance, this will stop eight weeks after your Carer’s Allowance stops.
- If you enter a care home permanently, you should contact the Pension Service on 0845 606 0265, telling them about your change of circumstances and that you have now moved into a care home permanently. They will then work out your Pension Credit and pay it at the correct rate. If you are part of a couple, the Pension Service will treat you as a single person for benefit purposes.
They will treat you and your partner’s income separately and pay you on an individual basis. After you tell the Pension Service about your change in circumstances, it is very important that your partner claims in their own right. If they are aged 60 or over they can claim Pension Credit (please phone 0800 99 1234). If they are under 60 they can claim Income Support or Jobseeker’s Allowance (please phone 0800 055 66 88). This will make sure that both you and your partner are receiving the correct benefits.
What happens to Income Support?
As with Pension Credit if you enter a care home temporarily your Income Support will generally stay the same, although any extra amounts that you receive because you are in receipt of Disability Living Allowance or Carer’s Allowance will stop if those benefits stop.
If you enter a care home permanently you should contact the office that pays your Income Support to inform them of your change of circumstances. You are no longer treated as part of a couple, so your partner should make a new claim for Income Support or Jobseeker’s Allowance (please phone 0800 055 66 88) in their own right.
What happens to Employment and Support Allowance?
Employment and Support Allowance is a new benefit paid to people whose ability to work is limited by ill health or disability. From October 2008 you can claim Employment and Support Allowance instead of Incapacity Benefit and Income Support paid on the grounds of incapacity.
If you are in the work related activity group you should consider asking to be transferred to the support group, so that you can receive the extra payments made to those in the support group. If you receive income related Employment and Support Allowance this benefit is affected in the same way as Income Support and Pension Credit.
What happens to Housing Benefit?
When you enter a care home permanently, you can no longer receive Housing Benefit for your home in the community. Someone else who lives there may be able to claim Housing Benefit instead. If you remain liable for rent because you have to give notice to end the tenancy, you can claim Housing Benefit for up to four weeks as long as the liability could not reasonably have been avoided.
When you enter a care home temporarily, Housing Benefit can continue to be paid for up to 52 weeks on a respite stay, as long as you plan to return home and not sublet your home.
What happens to Industrial Injury Benefits and War Disablement Pensions?
These benefits are not generally affected when you are in a care home, except that any payments of Constant Attendance Allowance and Exceptionally Severe Disablement Allowance are treated the same as Attendance Allowance and the care part of Disability Living Allowance. War disablement pensioners may qualify for help with care home fees from the Service Personnel and Veterans’ Agency.
What happens to Winter Fuel Payments?
Winter Fuel Payments are paid to households where at least one resident is aged 60 or over. There are special rules for people in residential care. If you are living in a care home in the third week of September, and have been living there for the 12 preceding weeks, you are considered to be ‘living in residential care’.
- If you do not get Pension Credit you are entitled to £125 if you are aged 60-79, or £200 if you are aged over 80.
- If you get Pension Credit you cannot get a Winter Fuel Payment.
In addition, you will not be entitled to a Winter Fuel Payment if your care has been living in a care home fully funded by the NHS for more than 52 weeks.
If you are not considered to be ‘living in residential care’, for example because you have not been living in a care home for 12 weeks (during the third week in September), then you are entitled to the amount you would receive if you were living in the community.
Even if you are not entitled, or entitled to a reduced amount, your partner may be able to receive a payment in their own right.
For people who are not living in residential care the payments are normally £250 for a household with a person aged 60-79 years, or £400 if there is someone aged 80 or over.
Payments are usually made between mid November and December.
Email this pageLast modified by: Dawn Rowe on 18/06/2009