Someone will eventually tell you, breezily, that “home care is about £X an hour.”
They’re either guessing, selling, or coping.
Because the real question families are asking us at Sana Carers is nastier: “How much is this going to cost when it’s not just a ‘bit of help’, it’s every day—maybe nights too—and it has to actually work?” And you want an answer that won’t collapse the first time Mum has a bad week.
So here it is. Straight.
There’s no single price. There’s a range—and the range is wide because “care” can mean anything from “make lunch and have a chat” to “two carers, hoist transfers, continence care, meds, dementia behaviours, and someone awake all night.”
Here are the numbers people tend to bump into in 2025/26:
Hourly/visiting care: often ~£26–£32/hour, with some areas and packages higher.
A sanity-check benchmark: the Homecare Association’s Minimum Price for Homecare in England for 2025/26 is £32.14/hour (this is aimed at what councils/NHS should pay for sustainable, compliant care—useful as a reality check).
Overnight care: “sleeping night” vs “waking night” can differ by a lot; one guide puts it around £210/night (sleeping) and £260/night (waking).
Live-in care: you’ll see quotes from roughly £950–£1,350/week on some platforms, and ~£1,100–£2,000/week with many providers depending on needs and location.
If you want the honest takeaway: once you’re paying for reliable coverage, the hourly number stops being the headline. The weekly and monthly picture is what matters.
Here’s what actually pushes the bill up or down—this is the stuff families only learn after they’ve already started.
Level Of Need (Not The Diagnosis)
A person with arthritis who needs help washing and dressing is priced differently from a person with dementia who is distressed, resisting care, and at risk of wandering. Same house. Very different day.
Timing And Staffing
Daytime visits are one thing. Early mornings, late evenings, weekends, and bank holidays can change rates. Nights change everything.
And then there’s double-handed care (two carers for certain transfers). That’s not “twice the price” as a fun surprise—it’s often non-negotiable for safety.
Visit Length And Minimum Charges
A lot of care isn’t billed as “one pure hour.” It’s billed as minimum visit lengths (30/45/60 minutes) plus practical constraints like travel time between clients.
So yes, you can “only need 20 minutes.” But you may not be able to buy 20 minutes.
Location (Wages + Travel Reality)
London and the South East tend to be higher. Rural areas can be higher too in a different way—longer travel, fewer carers, less flexibility.
Some models bake in heavy overheads. Others don’t.
We built Sana Carers as a platform where clients can connect with vetted, qualified, insured carers directly—so you’re not automatically paying a thick layer of admin on top of everything else. Start with our Our Services page if you want to see the common care setups families use.
Hourly Home Care Costs: The Maths People Avoid Doing
Hourly care looks cheaper because it can be cheaper—when needs are light and predictable.
But the moment you stack multiple visits per day, the weekly cost climbs fast.
Example: “Just Three Visits A Day”
Say you arrange:
1 hour in the morning
1 hour at lunchtime
1 hour in the evening
That’s 21 hours/week.
At £26/hour, that’s ~£546/week.
At £32/hour, that’s ~£672/week.
And that’s before you add the real cost multipliers: weekends, complex needs, double-handed calls, last-minute changes.
The Gotcha: Care Management Is Labour (Usually Yours)
Even if the paid hours look “reasonable,” somebody still has to:
coordinate schedules
cover sickness/holiday gaps
keep an eye on medication changes
deal with discharge chaos when the hospital suddenly decides it’s time to go home
Families don’t budget for that. They just absorb it. Until they can’t.
Overnight support is where budgets either get serious or get wrecked.
Sleeping night: the carer is there, but expected to sleep and only help if needed.
Waking night: the carer is awake for the shift because needs are expected (toileting, agitation, turning, monitoring, wandering risk).
One UK guide puts overnight sleeping care at ~£210/night and overnight waking care at ~£260/night. Multiply that by 7 nights and you’ll see why families swallow hard.
And no—trying to “cheat” a waking-night situation into a sleeping-night booking usually ends badly. For everyone.
Live-In Care Costs: What You’re Really Paying For
Live-in care gets described as “24-hour care,” which makes it sound like one person works 24 hours a day.
They don’t. They can’t. They’re human.
What you’re paying for is:
a carer living in the home
daytime support, plus help as agreed
a defined approach to nights (some live-in packages don’t cover frequent night waking—if nights are heavy, cost goes up or you need a second carer/night cover)
On pricing, you’ll see:
~£950–£1,100/week for standard live-in support on some platforms
~£1,100–£2,000/week with many providers depending on needs, location, and complexity
It can also be a relief—real continuity, one relationship, one rhythm—when rotating hourly carers would just confuse or upset the person receiving care.
This is where people waste months because they assume “surely there’s help.” Sometimes there is. Sometimes there isn’t. And sometimes there is, but only if you ask in the right order.
Local Council Assessment And Means Testing (England, 2025/26)
If you’re in England, councils use financial assessment rules with capital limits that—again—people misquote constantly.
For 2025 to 2026, the government circular confirms the upper capital limit is £23,250 and the lower capital limit is £14,250 in savings and assets (excluding the value of your home if you still live there).
Above that upper limit, you’re typically treated as a self-funder (and you’ll feel it). Between the limits, you may pay a contribution.
NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC)
CHC is the big one because it can fund care based on health needs, not your bank balance. It’s assessed using a defined national process, and it’s aimed at people with a “primary health need.”
It’s also the one families miss because they assume it’s only for end-of-life care. It’s not only that—but eligibility is strict, and the paperwork can be a grind.
Two common ones:
Attendance Allowance (State Pension age): £73.90/week (lower) or £110.40/week (higher) in 2025/26, depending on level of help needed.
Carer’s Allowance (for unpaid carers): £83.30/week in 2025/26 if you care 35+ hours/week and meet the rules.
Carers UK also highlights the earnings limit of £196/week (from 7 April 2025) for Carer’s Allowance (after deductions). Go £1 over and you can trigger problems. Yes, it’s that unforgiving.
If you want a fuller run-through, we’ve already written it up in plain English here: Funding Options for Home Care in the UK.
People hear “save money” and immediately picture corner-cutting. That’s not what we mean.
Here’s what actually helps:
Buy the right type of care. Don’t pay for live-in if two visits a day covers it. Don’t buy two visits a day if nights are the real danger zone.
Be specific about tasks. “General help” leads to muddled expectations and wasted time.
Prioritise continuity. Fewer carers, better routine, less re-explaining, less resistance, fewer mistakes.
Use short trials. Two weeks of honest tracking (sleep, falls, appetite, mood) beats six months of denial.
And if you’re stuck on the bigger decision—home care versus moving—our take is blunt on purpose: Home Care vs. Care Home: Which Is Better for Your Loved One?
We’re not here to lecture you about “journeys.” You’re living it.
Sana Carers is built to make it simpler to find qualified, insured carers and agree terms directly—without the usual agency overheads and with clear choices about hourly, night, live-in, and respite setups.
That doesn’t make care “cheap.” Nothing does. But it can make the spending feel less like you’re paying for bureaucracy.
Is £32/hour “the going rate”?
It’s a common ballpark. It’s also close to the Homecare Association’s minimum sustainable rate for 2025/26 in England (£32.14/hour)—useful as a benchmark, not a law of physics.
Why do councils pay less than private clients sometimes?
Because council fee rates are a different market with different pressures—and not always enough to cover what providers say care really costs to deliver safely. (If you’ve ever wondered why staffing is shaky, that’s part of it.)
Is live-in care always cheaper than a care home?
No. Sometimes it’s similar, sometimes higher, sometimes better value—especially for couples or when continuity matters. But the only honest comparison is your needs and your nights.
Can Attendance Allowance pay for carers?
It can contribute. In 2025/26 it’s £73.90 or £110.40 per week—helpful, not magical.
What’s the first step if we’re overwhelmed?
Get a clear picture of needs and risks before you shop on price. A “cheap” plan that fails at week three is the most expensive option you can buy.
