Carole, now 72, developed dementia at 65 and required round-the-clock care in a Surrey care home, initially costing £6,000 a month. Her daughter Hayley Garratt-Milne faced an impossible choice: with her mother having little savings and her own family circumstances making it hard to afford the fees, Surrey County Council placed a legal charge on the property. The four-bedroom Isleworth home, which Carole had bought in 1988 as a single parent working as a hairdresser, was sold for £715,000. Hayley said of the decision: "I don't think you should be forced to sell your family home to pay for care."
The sale proceeds were expected to cover about ten years of care costs, but care home fees have risen from £6,000 a month to just over £8,000 since Carole entered the home five years ago. At the current rate, the money from the house sale will last less than seven-and-a-half years. Carole receives partial funding for nursing care, but additional costs mount up quickly. As Hayley explained, basic extras like toenail cutting at £25 or shower gel must be paid for separately by the family.
Hayley applied for continuing healthcare funding for her mother, which would have covered all costs, but was rejected despite Carole needing help with what Hayley describes as "almost everything". Between April and December 2024, only 15 per cent of completed local reviews and 24 per cent of independent reviews resulted in eligibility for continuing healthcare, according to official figures. A 2020 report by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman found serious failings in how continuing healthcare decisions were made, with people either paying large sums the NHS should have funded or going without needed care.
The situation reflects a wider postcode lottery in the care system. A Nuffield Trust report found people in some areas were six times as likely to receive funding as those elsewhere. An estimated 37 per cent of care home residents are fully self-funded, while others receive contributions from the NHS or local councils. According to a survey by annuity providers Just Group, over a third of residents fund either the whole bill or part of it through property sales.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has promised a new National Care Service that would be "free at the point of use" and "protect people's homes and their savings". However, the plan would not cover accommodation and meals, which would remain means-tested, meaning some families would still need to sell properties. The Daily Mail has launched an appeal to fund Dementia Carers Together, delivering six-week courses with Alzheimer's Society for friends and relatives of those with dementia. There are 2.5 million people in the UK providing some form of care for people with dementia.
For savers and families in the UK, this means those needing long-term dementia care face unpredictable costs that may force asset sales, with funding eligibility varying significantly by location and assessment outcome.