What does dementia care cost?

None of these figures are fixed by the diagnosis. A person in the early stages of dementia who mostly needs company can cost the same as anyone else needing a companion; a person in the later stages who needs full personal care and is unsettled at night costs closer to the top of the range, in the same way any condition with those needs would. The seven stages of dementia sets out how needs, and therefore the hours needed, tend to build over time. If your relative's needs have grown to the point where visits no longer cover the day, live-in care and overnight care explain how those arrangements work in more detail.

Most families do not choose a price band directly. They describe what a typical day looks like, and the price follows from that. What are signs that dementia is getting worse? is worth reading before assuming a sudden change means a jump in cost, because a urine infection, dehydration or a new medicine can look like a step down and is often treatable rather than permanent.

PrimeCarers is an introductory service, not an agency or a care provider, and does not employ, manage or supervise carers, who work for themselves and set their own rate. Every carer who appears on the platform has interviewed online and had their identity, right to work and an enhanced DBS on the Update Service checked before they appear, and they are insured while they work. We do not check qualifications, training or references, so ask a carer directly about their experience. Finding someone yourself is often the cheapest route on paper, but the checks, the cover if they are unwell, and the introduction all fall to you. How do private carers compare with agency carers? and do private carers need a DBS? go into both in more depth.

The point at which live-in usually becomes the better value is roughly 35 hours of visits a week, whether that is spread across the day or split between daily visits and nights. Below that, visits are usually cheaper. Above it, one carer living in costs about the same or less and is there for the gaps between visits too, which with dementia are often when a fall, a wander or a confused night happens. For a couple where both partners need care, one live-in carer for both typically costs around £1,350 a week, a good deal less than two separate arrangements. The cost of live-in care and is live-in care cheaper than a care home? set out the fuller comparison, and live-in care for couples covers that arrangement specifically.

A client-cancelled visit is payable in full unless it is cancelled for unplanned hospitalisation, illness, or another reason the carer agrees to, so it is worth booking hours you are fairly confident about rather than a hopeful maximum. None of this is unique to dementia, but families arranging it for the first time are often the ones caught out by it. Cancellations and late-running visits and weekend, evening and bank holiday rates cover the visit-by-visit detail, and home adaptations that reduce the need for care and what is a dementia clock? cover the safety changes worth making early.

Attendance Allowance is worth claiming as soon as your relative needs help with personal care or supervision, whatever their savings, and it is ignored as income for Pension Credit, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction. Council funding for care at home works differently: it follows a free needs assessment and then a means test, and a council does count Attendance Allowance as income in that means test. Over £23,250 in savings and your relative pays in full for care, whatever form it takes. Much of what dementia needs day to day, washing, dressing, meals, being kept safe, is classed as social care rather than NHS healthcare, which is why it is means-tested rather than free at the point of use in the way cancer or heart treatment would be. Where the need has become as much about health as daily living, typically in the later stages, NHS Continuing Healthcare is not means-tested and can fund the whole package, including a live-in carer at home. The different types of care funding explains how the three fit together, Attendance Allowance covers who qualifies and how to claim, local authority funding covers the needs assessment and the means test, and NHS Continuing Healthcare explains who qualifies and how to ask for an assessment.

1. 1

   Write down a typical day

   This week

   Note what your relative can do alone, what needs prompting, and what needs doing for them, including the nights. This becomes the care plan a carer works from, and it is also what you will describe if you ask for a council assessment.
2. 2

   Claim Attendance Allowance and ask for a needs assessment

   Free

   Claim Attendance Allowance whatever your relative's savings, and ask the council for a care needs assessment at the same time. Neither depends on the other, and both are worth doing even if you plan to pay for care privately.
3. 3

   Search carers with dementia experience near you

   Free

   Every profile shows what carers charge, their reviews and whether they have dementia experience. Message two or three and ask about the parts of the day you are most worried about.
4. 4

   Book a small start, then adjust

   Week 1 or 2

   Start with the visits you are sure of, a morning call or a few hours of company, and add more as you see how it goes. Hours can go up or down whenever they need to, and there is no package to renegotiate.

If money and safety are both weighing on you at once, at what point should someone with dementia go into care? sets out the wider decision alongside the cost of it, and paying for care at home and managing expenses covers the practical side of budgeting for ongoing care.