A third of care home residents were self-funders before pandemic, ONS reveals

Some 37 per cent of care home residents were paying for their own care before the pandemic, while the majority (63 per cent) were state-funded, according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

As part of its first ever publication today of figures on the self-funding population of care home residents, the ONS has analysed data from care homes collected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for the period August 2019 to February 2020.

Residents defined as self-funders are either paying for their own care privately or had their care provided by a charity, while some may also have been receiving some NHS-funded care.

Smaller care homes and younger adult homes had fewest self-funders

From August 2019 until February 2020 before the Covid pandemic impacted the UK, 85 per cent of care home beds (391,927 out of 462,460) were occupied in England.

There were approximately 143,774 (37 per cent) self-funded care home residents, compared with 248,153 (63 per cent) state-funded residents.

Smaller care homes (less than 20 beds), care homes for younger adults and care homes in England's most deprived areas had fewest self-funding residents. Care homes in England’s most deprived areas had the least self-funders (22 per cent) but this rose to 54 per cent in the country’s wealthiest areas.

Almost half of residents in care homes for people aged 65+ were self-funders, compared to only 4.8 per cent in homes for younger residents.

Cotswold had the highest percentage of self-funders in care homes, while Southwark had the lowest. The South East is the region with the highest proportion of self-funders (45 per cent) and the North East had the lowest (25 per cent).

Care homes run by a provider with multiple care homes had a higher percentage of self-funders.

The highest proportion of self-funders were living in care homes rated Outstanding (47 per cent) by the CQC.