Care homes and benefits - Benefits to help pay your rent, Council Tax or mortgage/home loan

Any benefits you get to help pay your rent, lease, mortgage, or other home loan and Council Tax on your former home will stop when you move to live in a care home permanently. For some benefits, this is from when you expect to be away from home for 52 weeks or more. These benefits are:

• Housing Benefit (England, Scotland, Wales) or Housing Benefit (Northern Ireland)

• Support with Mortgage Interest or housing costs paid with Pension Credit

• income-based Employment and Support Allowance, Income Support or income-based Jobseeker's Allowance

• Council Tax Support if no one else is living in the property, tell your local authority's Council Tax department as you may not have to pay Council Tax any more.

If you move temporarily to a care home but are going to return home, for example you have respite care or are trying out a care home, these benefits can carry on being paid for up to 52 weeks.

If you are claiming Universal Credit Housing Costs Element, you will only be able to carry on getting it after you move into a care home if your stay there is not expected to be longer than 6 months.

If you are claiming a Support for Mortgage Interest loan with Universal Credit, you can only carry on getting it after you move into a care home if your stay there is not expected to be longer than 6 months.

You will need to tell the people paying the benefit that you are moving into a care home, for example Jobcentre Plus, the Pension Service or your local authority. You should tell them as soon as you know you are moving so they can make sure that you are not paid too much.

If you were claiming one of these benefits on behalf of you and your partner, your partner should claim in their own right as soon as you move permanently into a care home.

Reviewed November 2021