Money is often the question people are most reluctant to ask, and the one that matters most. Families delay arranging help they clearly need because they assume it will be unaffordable, or because nobody has explained clearly where the money might actually come from. This guide is our attempt to change that — honestly, and without steering you towards us where a different answer is the right one.
We want to be upfront about something before we go further: we are a home help service, not a regulated personal care agency. That distinction matters for funding as much as it matters for what we actually do in your home, and we will be honest with you about it throughout this guide rather than blur the line to make our own service sound more fundable than it is.
What home help actually costs
We charge £33 per hour, across all nine of our services, with no registration fees, no assessment charges and no hidden costs of any kind. The same rate applies whether you need companionship, meal preparation, shopping, housekeeping or any of our other services.
It is worth knowing that this figure sits close to the Homecare Association's recommended minimum rate for 2026/27 — the rate that industry body calculates is needed to pay carers fairly, cover proper training and travel time, and deliver a service safely and sustainably. A provider charging significantly less than this is usually cutting corners somewhere, most often on the wages and training of the person who actually comes to your door. We would rather be honest about our rate and what it reflects than compete on a price that does not add up.
To put it in perspective: a single one-hour visit each day, seven days a week, costs around £231 a week. Two visits a day, morning and evening, comes to around £462 a week. Many of our clients need far less than this — a couple of hours a week is often enough to make a genuine difference.
Attendance Allowance — the benefit most families have not claimed
Attendance Allowance is, in our experience, the single most under-used source of funding available to the families we speak with. It is a tax-free, weekly payment from the Department for Work and Pensions for anyone over State Pension age who needs help with personal care or supervision because of a physical or mental health condition.
From April 2026, it pays £76.70 a week at the lower rate or £114.60 a week at the higher rate, depending on the level of need. Crucially, it is not means-tested — your savings and income make no difference to whether you qualify — and it is paid directly to the individual with no restriction on how it is spent. Nationally, a very large proportion of people who are eligible for Attendance Allowance have simply never claimed it.
Because Attendance Allowance is paid to the person, not tied to a specific type of care, many families use it specifically to cover the cost of privately arranged home help — exactly the kind of support we provide.
At the higher rate, Attendance Allowance alone covers roughly three and a half hours of home help a week with us. Combined with a modest private contribution, it makes a genuinely useful, regular package of support affordable for a great many families who assumed it was out of reach.
Where council funding does and does not apply
This is the part where we think honesty matters most, because it is also the part where families are most often confused, sometimes by providers who would rather not clarify it. Local authority care funding is generally directed towards assessed, regulated personal care needs — help with bathing, dressing, medication and similar — and is typically commissioned through agencies registered with the Care Quality Commission.
Home help, in the sense that we provide it, sits outside that regulated category. It is not the kind of service a council care needs assessment is designed to fund directly, and we would rather tell you that plainly now than have you discover it after an assessment that does not go the way you expected. Our services are, in the great majority of cases, arranged and paid for privately, often alongside Attendance Allowance to bring the real cost down.
If, during a conversation with us, it becomes clear that what is actually needed is personal care — help with bathing, medication, or similar tasks — we will say so honestly and point you towards a CQC-registered provider who can help, rather than try to stretch our own service to cover something it is not designed for.
A fact that surprises most families: your home is not counted
This is one of the most consistently misunderstood points in the whole conversation about paying for care, and it is worth stating clearly on its own. For care received in your own home — whether that is personal care or the kind of support we provide — the value of your property is never included in any council financial assessment. It simply does not come into it.
This is different from residential care, where the value of a person's home can, in some circumstances, be taken into account. The property disregard for care at home is one of the strongest financial arguments for remaining in your own home for as long as it remains the right choice, quite apart from the personal and emotional reasons for wanting to.
How the cost compares to residential care
Families often assume that any paid-for support at home must be a modest, cheaper alternative to a care home, used only until residential care becomes unavoidable. The real comparison is more favourable to staying at home than most people expect.
Even fairly generous daily home help remains a fraction of residential care costs. This does not mean home help is always the right answer — some people genuinely need the round-the-clock support a care home or full live-in care provides, and we will always say so honestly if that appears to be the case. But for the many families whose relative simply needs consistent company, practical help and someone keeping a caring eye on things, the financial case for staying at home is often stronger than they assumed before they had the real numbers in front of them.
Putting it together
A typical, honest starting picture for many of our clients looks something like this: a care needs conversation with us to establish what would genuinely help, a claim for Attendance Allowance if not already in payment, and a modest weekly private contribution to cover the difference. No means test, no property assessment, no long wait for a council decision — just a straightforward, private arrangement that most families can put in place within days rather than months.
If you are unsure where you stand, the most useful next step is usually a conversation, not a form. Get in touch and one of our founders will talk it through honestly, including telling you plainly if a different kind of service or funding route would suit you better.