The short answer
- An unplanned admission is an exception to payingThe client contract asks a client who cancels to pay the full cost, and names unplanned hospitalisation as one of the exceptions to that.
- A planned operation is a cancellation like any otherA date you were given weeks ago is not an emergency, so those days are payable unless the carer agrees to waive part or all of the cost.
- Whether the carer stays is for you and them to agreeThe contract covers payment and notice, not where a carer sleeps during a hospital stay. Agree that in writing, with the keys and the food.
- Attendance Allowance is suspended after 28 daysIt is paid for the first 28 days of an NHS stay and then stops until your parent comes home, and Carer's Allowance stops with it.
Live-in care on PrimeCarers is £1,050 to £1,400 a week, typically £1,120, with our fee included. Anything you agree for the weeks your parent is on a ward is between you and the carer.
Do you keep paying
What the contract says about the days the carer cannot work
What decides this is not how long your parent is in for. It is whether the admission was expected or not.
An unplanned admission
An ambulance, A&E, or a ward bed found the same day
A planned admission
An operation or a procedure with a date you were given in advance
The days the carer was booked for
An unplanned admission
Not payable. Unplanned hospitalisation is named in the contract as an exception to the rule that a client who cancels pays the full cost.
A planned admission
Payable in full, unless the carer agrees otherwise. A date you already knew about is a cancellation like any other.
Whether the carer can waive the cost
An unplanned admission
Nothing to waive, because the exception already applies.
A planned admission
Yes, at the carer’s own discretion. The contract lets a carer waive part or all of a cancellation cost, so ask early rather than on the day.
Telling the carer
An unplanned admission
As soon as you are able to. Until they hear from you the carer is still expecting to work, and may be travelling.
A planned admission
As soon as the date is confirmed. That gives the carer time to take other work, and gives you time to agree what happens to the weeks in question.
Ending the arrangement altogether
An unplanned admission
Seven days’ notice once the carer has been present for 168 hours, which is a full week lived in. Before that, 48 hours.
A planned admission
The same notice period applies. Notice covers work already agreed; neither side is obliged to offer or accept work beyond it.
What PrimeCarers charges
An unplanned admission
Nothing. We do not set the terms between you and the carer, and we do not decide the outcome, though we can pass messages between you.
A planned admission
Nothing, on the same basis.
Drawn from the cancellation and notice clauses of the client contract in force from 8 December 2025. The contract is what governs payment, so read it alongside anything a carer tells you.
The rule sits in the cancellation clause of the client contract. A client who cancels agreed work pays the full cost, with three exceptions written into it: unplanned hospitalisation, illness, and any other reason the carer agrees to. An ambulance at two in the morning is the first of those, so the days your parent spends on a ward are not days you are asked to pay for.
A planned admission is not covered by that exception. If the date for an operation came through six weeks ago, standing the carer down is a cancellation you chose to make, and the contract asks you to pay for the work that was agreed. A carer may waive part or all of that cost, which the contract allows at their own discretion, but it is their decision and not one PrimeCarers makes for either of you. Raise it as soon as the date is confirmed rather than the week before, and confirm what you agree by message or email.
Does the carer stay
Where the carer goes while your parent is on a ward
A live-in carer lives in your parent's house. When the ambulance leaves, they are standing in a home with nobody to look after, and their own home may be several hours away. Nothing in the contract settles this, so it is a conversation, and it is better had on day one than on day five.
They stay in the house
Agreed and paid for between you
They go home and come back
Worth agreeing if the stay looks long
The arrangement ends with notice
Seven days once 168 hours have been worked
What to put in writing either way
A message or an email is enough
Be straight with the carer about what you know and what you do not. A carer who is told on day one that the stay may run to three weeks can make plans. A carer who hears nothing for a fortnight is likely to accept another placement, because that is how self-employed work goes. If the pets are part of why you want them to stay, can a live-in carer look after a pet? covers what is reasonable to ask.
168 hours
One full week lived in. Once a live-in carer has been present that long, either side needs seven days' notice to end the arrangement. Before that, 48 hours applies.
Client contract, notices clause, in force from 8 December 2025.
Telling the hospital
What the ward needs to know about the care at home
The statutory guidance on hospital discharge says NHS bodies must involve patients and unpaid carers in discharge planning as soon as it is feasible for anyone likely to need care and support afterwards. A paid live-in carer is not an unpaid carer, but they are the person who knows how your parent takes their tablets and how they get out of a chair, so make sure the ward knows they exist.
Before you leave the ward on the first day
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What to tell them
What to take in
If you want the carer to visit, take laundry home or sit with your parent during the day, that is work you are asking for and it is paid at whatever the two of you agree. It is not covered by the live-in week, because the live-in week is not running. Where your parent has dementia, a familiar face on the ward is worth arranging: hospital stays with dementia covers what helps.
Benefits and funding
What changes for Attendance Allowance and Carer's Allowance
Benefits paid because somebody needs care are not paid indefinitely while the NHS is providing that care. The dates are fixed and they are worth knowing in advance, because the money stops whether or not anyone has told you.
- Day 1
Tell the people who pay
Ring the Attendance Allowance helpline with the date of admission, tell the council if it contributes to your parent's care, and tell the carer. Reporting the admission is a condition of the benefit.
- Day 28
Attendance Allowance is suspended
It is payable for the first 28 days in hospital where your parent is maintained free of charge as an inpatient, and then payment stops until they come home. Two stays separated by 28 days or less are linked and counted together towards the same 28 days.
- Week 4
Carer's Allowance stops with it
Carer's Allowance, claimed by a family member for looking after your parent, depends on your parent receiving a qualifying benefit. When that benefit stops after four weeks of an NHS-arranged stay, the Carer's Allowance award stops with it.
- Home
Attendance Allowance starts again
It is paid from the day your parent comes home, and the days they enter and leave hospital count as days at home. Tell the DWP the discharge date as soon as you have it so there is no gap in payment.
- 6 weeks
Reablement at home is free
Where a council provides intermediate care or reablement, the regulations say it must not charge for the first six weeks. That is separate from anything you pay a live-in carer, and the two can run alongside each other.
Attendance Allowance is £76.70 or £114.60 a week in 2026/27, depending on the level of help needed, and Carer's Allowance is £86.45 a week, the rates published on GOV.UK. A long stay takes a noticeable amount out of a household budget. Attendance Allowance and Carer's Allowance explain how each is claimed. If your parent's care is funded or part funded by the council, tell them the admission date as well, because the package will normally be paused and you do not want it closed by accident. Funding care after a hospital stay covers what is available once they are home.
Getting ready to come home
Planning the discharge before the ward tells you the date
Hospital discharge in England works on a discharge to assess model: short-term care, rehabilitation and reablement first, with longer-term needs assessed once a person has reached a point of recovery. That means the decision about how much care your parent needs may be made after they are home, not on the ward, and it may not match what they had before.
- 1
Ask what the discharge plan is
Within the first few daysAsk who is coordinating the discharge, whether reablement or intermediate care is being offered, and whether a care needs assessment is being arranged. Where it appears an adult may have care and support needs, the council has a duty to assess. - 2
Find out what has changed
Before discharge dayAsk the ward what your parent can and cannot do now: stairs, transfers, washing, whether they need help at night. That is the list your carer needs, and it is the difference between a placement that works and one that falls over. - 3
Tell the carer what is coming
As soon as you knowIf the care is heavier than before, say so. A live-in week on PrimeCarers typically costs £1,120 with our fee included, and complex care, for example hoisting or advanced dementia, runs from about £1,260. A carer who is not confident with the new needs would rather tell you now. - 4
Get the house ready for the person coming back
The day beforeEquipment delivered and in the right room, the bed downstairs if it needs to be, food in, heating on. Ask for the discharge letter and give the carer a copy.
If the need is somebody awake at night for the first fortnight rather than a change of arrangement, short-term night care after hospital covers how that is booked and what it costs. If the discharge has been sprung on you and nothing is in place, discharge is tomorrow and there is no care is written for that week, and what to arrange before discharge day is the fuller checklist. For what the council assessment decides, read the care needs assessment. The NHS guide to planning to leave hospital sets out what to expect.
If the carer cannot wait
When the carer takes another placement before your parent is home
Carers on PrimeCarers are self-employed and choose their own work. A carer with three weeks of no income and no discharge date may take another family, and they are entitled to, provided they give the notice the contract requires. It is worth planning for that rather than being surprised by it.
What helps
- Telling the carer plainly what you know about the length of the stay, and updating them when it changes
- Agreeing, in writing, what the carer is paid if you want them held available
- Starting to look at other carers while your parent is still on the ward, rather than on discharge day
- Asking the outgoing carer to write down the routine and the medication for whoever comes next
- Keeping the notice period in mind on both sides, so an ending is planned
What tends to go wrong
- Leaving the carer without news for a fortnight and assuming they will still be free
- Agreeing a retainer verbally and disagreeing about it later
- Waiting for the discharge date before you start looking, when it can come the same morning
- Assuming the new carer will pick up the routine without being told it
- Ending the arrangement in anger on the day, when notice is owed
If you do need somebody else, you can search for carers near you and compare their rates before your parent is discharged, and message two or three while you wait for a date. Every carer sets their own rate and shows their experience, reviews and availability on their profile. How can I find a live-in carer? covers what to ask them, and if you only need cover for a few weeks, can I hire a live-in carer temporarily? explains a fixed-length placement. Emergency respite suits a gap of days rather than weeks.
Questions
Questions families ask when a parent is admitted
Not for an unplanned admission. The client contract says a client who cancels agreed work pays the full cost, and it names unplanned hospitalisation as an exception, alongside illness and any other reason the carer agrees to. PrimeCarers charges you nothing for stopping the work. Holding the carer available, or asking them to stay in the house, is a separate arrangement at a figure the two of you agree.
No. A date you were given in advance is not an unplanned hospitalisation, so cancelling the carer for those weeks is a client cancellation and the contract asks you to pay the full cost. A carer may choose to waive part or all of it, which the contract permits at their discretion, so speak to them as soon as the date is confirmed and put whatever you agree in writing.
That is for you and the carer to agree, since the contract covers payment and notice rather than where a carer sleeps during a hospital stay. Families do arrange it, so that the house is occupied and somebody is there on discharge day. Agree what the carer is paid for those days, who holds the keys, and when you will both review it, then confirm it by message or email.
It is paid for the first 28 days of a stay where your parent is maintained free of charge as an inpatient, and then payment is suspended until they come home. Two or more stays separated by 28 days or less are linked and counted together towards the same 28 days, and the days of admission and discharge count as days at home. Report the admission to the DWP at the start rather than waiting.
Carer's Allowance depends on the person you care for receiving a qualifying benefit such as Attendance Allowance. When that benefit stops after four weeks of an NHS-arranged hospital stay, the Carer's Allowance award stops at the same time. The carer premium in means-tested benefits such as Pension Credit can continue for a further period, so tell whoever pays those as well.
Seven days, once the carer has been present for 168 hours, which is one full week lived in. Before that point 48 hours is enough. The same notice applies to the carer if they are the one ending it. Notice is in writing, and email or a message counts. How live-in care ends goes through it in more detail.
Not necessarily, but ask the current carer directly rather than assuming. Heavier needs such as hoisting, a stoma or advanced dementia call for someone experienced in them, and live-in placements at that level start from around £1,260 a week rather than £1,120. A carer who is not confident with what is coming home is better telling you beforehand. The cost of live-in care sets out the bands.