Care homes and benefits - Your partner's benefits when you live in a care home

For the purposes of benefits claims, you and your partner will no longer be treated as a couple if you are living in a care home permanently. Your partner must apply for benefits as a single person.

If your partner gets a benefit in their own right, for example Basic State Pension, New State Pension or contributory Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), they will get the benefit but any additional amount paid to them for you as their partner will stop. 

Your partner should tell whoever pays them benefits that you have moved to live in a care home (for example, Jobcentre Plus, the Pension Service, Disability Benefit Unit, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) or the local authority) so that they can decide what changes needs to be made to their benefits.

The benefits that your partner can claim as a single person will depend on their age, whether they are caring for children, looking for work, sick, disabled or caring for a disabled person. They can use the Turn2us Benefit Calculator to find out what they might be entitled to.   

If you are living in a care home temporarily, for example in respite care, any benefits your partner gets that include an amount for you will only change if you are likely to be living apart for more than 52 weeks if your partner gets legacy benefits or 6 months if your partner gets Universal Credit.

Reviewed November 2021