How Much Does Home Care Cost in the UK?

Most families researching this find a range so wide it is useless, or a page that will not give a number at all until you fill in a form.

Here are the actual figures for 2026, what drives the variation, and what reduces the bill.

Visiting care

Across the UK, home care visits typically cost between £26 and £38 an hour, with around £32 the most commonly quoted rate. Regional variation is real, and London and the South East sit at the upper end.

One number worth knowing, because almost nobody publishes it. The Homecare Association, the trade body for home care providers, calculates a minimum price that a provider employing carers needs to charge in order to pay the legal minimum wage, cover travel time, holiday pay, pension contributions, training and the rest, and remain sustainable. For England in 2026/27 that figure is £34.42 an hour.

That is a useful benchmark in both directions. A traditional agency quoting well below it is either subsidising the work or squeezing it out of the carer, usually through unpaid travel time between visits. And it tells you what the genuine floor is for an employing model.

What changes the price: visit length, with shorter visits costing more per hour; time of day, with early mornings and evenings often at a premium; weekends and bank holidays, and there are eight bank holidays a year; two carers where the task requires it, which roughly doubles the rate; and specialist needs.

Ask specifically about travel time and mileage, because some providers charge for it separately and some do not.

Live-in care

Live-in care typically runs £1,200 to £1,500 a week in 2026, which is around £1,700 to £2,150 for a couple with most providers, since one carer can support two people.

That covers a carer living in the home. They have their own room, take proper breaks during the day and sleep at night. It is not round-the-clock waking care, and any provider implying otherwise is misleading you. If someone genuinely needs supervision through the night, that is a waking night arrangement and it costs more.

The point where the two cross over

Worth doing this arithmetic before committing to either.

At roughly £32 an hour, £1,400 a week buys about 43 hours of visiting care, which is a little over six hours a day.

So below about five or six hours of daily support, visiting care is cheaper and less intrusive. Above it, live-in generally costs the same or less and gives you someone in the house overnight rather than four scheduled visits.

Families frequently add visits incrementally without ever stepping back to check which side of that line they are on.

Compared with a care home

For one person, live-in care and a care home cost broadly the same. Self-funded care home fees in England average around £1,300 to £1,400 a week, and nursing care around £1,500. We have compared live-in care and care homes in more detail separately.

Two things change the comparison. For a couple, one live-in carer supports both, where a care home is two sets of fees. And the property is treated differently: the value of the home your parent lives in is not counted in the local authority financial assessment for care at home, but normally is for permanent care in a care home. We have written about whether you have to sell the house to pay for care separately, and it changes the arithmetic more than the weekly rate does.

What we charge

Visiting care from £32 an hour. Live-in around £200 a day, for one person or a couple.

We would rather publish that than make you ring for it.

A word on how that works, because it is the part of the pricing that actually matters. We are an introductory agency: we introduce families to self-employed carers rather than employing carers ourselves. There is less between what you pay and what the carer receives, which is why our rate can sit below the Homecare Association's sustainable minimum for an employing agency without anyone being underpaid.

Carers working through Gladys keep considerably more of the hourly rate than they would at a traditional agency. That is not a marketing point, it is the reason continuity works. Carers who are paid properly stay, and the same person turning up each week is the thing families tell us matters most. Rotating carers is the single most common complaint about home care in this country, and it is a pay problem before it is anything else.

The trade-off is worth being straight about: because carers are self-employed, we cannot guarantee emergency cover the way a large agency with an employed workforce can. We would rather build a relationship with one or two consistent people than promise something we cannot reliably deliver.

What reduces the bill

Four things, and most families use none of them.

Attendance Allowance. Not means-tested. Savings and property make no difference. Worth £76.70 or £114.60 a week depending on the level of help needed. At the higher rate that is around three and a half additional hours of care a week, funded entirely by an entitlement the household already has.

Council contribution. If your parent's assessable capital is below £23,250 the council may contribute. Below £14,250 their savings are left alone entirely. Request a care needs assessment regardless of savings; it is free and available to everyone.

NHS Continuing Healthcare. If needs are significant and ongoing, the NHS can fund care in full, at home, with no means test. Very few families are ever told this exists.

Getting the shape right. Four half-hour visits a day is twelve hours a week of care and a great deal of coming and going. Two longer visits often achieve more for less. Ask whoever is arranging it to look at the shape rather than just adding hours.

Questions to ask about any quote

• Is that the rate for all times, or do evenings, weekends and bank holidays differ?

• Is travel time or mileage charged separately?

• What is the minimum visit length?

• What happens if a visit runs over?

• What notice is needed to change or cancel, and is there a charge?

• How often do rates rise, and by how much in the last three years?

• What does the carer actually receive out of this?

That last one is the most revealing question you can ask anybody, and it predicts turnover better than anything else on the list.

A few questions families often ask

Why is home care so expensive?

Most of what you pay goes on the carer's time. Once you account for the legal minimum wage, travel between visits, holiday pay, pension, insurance and training, the Homecare Association's £34.42 figure is what an employing agency needs to charge. The cost reflects that care is people, delivered one to one, in someone's home.

Why are we quoted more than the rate councils pay?

Councils typically pay providers around £25 an hour, well under the Homecare Association's minimum sustainable price. Council-commissioned care and privately arranged care are not the same product, and the gap is usually absorbed somewhere, most often in shorter visits and less continuity.

Do we pay for the carer's meals in live-in care?

Usually the household provides food, and a live-in carer needs their own room. Check what is included before comparing quotes.

Can we start small?

Yes, and it is usually the better approach. Many families begin with one to five hours a week and build from there once they can see what actually helps.

What if we cannot afford it?

If we are not the right fit for your budget we will tell you rather than sell you something unaffordable. Before you rule anything out, check the four routes above, because most families have not claimed at least one of them.

Do prices go up?

Rates change over time, and any provider should tell you how often and by how much. Ask for the last three years.

Working out what it would cost for your parent

The honest answer depends on how many hours, at what times, and what help is needed. What we can do is give you a straight figure rather than a range, without a form.

Call 01225 63 77 19 or request a callback, or read how Gladys works first if you would rather know what you are ringing about.