Care home fees are likely to soar by £20k. Here's how to fight back

When I received a letter from my uncle Richard’s care home in February, informing me that his fees would rise by 7 per cent on April 1, I was dismayed.

The care he receives is excellent, but this was a bitter pill to swallow when inflation is at just over 3 per cent – especially when the care home blamed it on rising inflation, including higher food and utility costs and the living wage. This would add £104 to Richard’s £1,480 weekly fee, an extra £5,408 a year.

A former teacher, Richard suffered a stroke in his 50s and now needs care each day and I have power over his affairs. But I should have breathed a sigh of relief – many families face hikes of 20 per cent this month.

Those already struggling to meet sky-high bills are going to be forced to spend up to an extra £20,000 a year, as squeezed care homes are jacking up fees once again.

In one shocking case, a care home resident is seeing their fees soar by 23 per cent this year. The person is a client of law firm Hugh James Solicitors, which represents people who may have overpaid on care home fees that should have been met by an NHS funding package called Continuing Healthcare.

Lisa Morgan, head of the nursing care fee-recovery team at Hugh James, says: ‘We are seeing very substantial increases at an individual level. One of our clients has seen her monthly fees rise from £7,500 to £9,500 – an increase of around 23 per cent, or more than £20,000 per year.

‘In our experience, increases at this level are becoming more common, particularly for self-funding residents. Families are often taken by surprise by the scale of these rises, and many simply do not have a clear plan for how they will sustain them long term.’

This means people are having to make very difficult decisions – whether that is selling property sooner than expected, exhausting savings at a much faster rate, or relying on family contributions to bridge the gap, she adds.

Crippling care bills

These increases come on top of previous steep annual rises.

Saq Hussain, founder of later- life research organisation UK Care Guide, says that while shocking, he had found that a 23 per cent increase was not unusual.

UK Care Guide published its first major survey into the care home sector in 2023, showing that fees had gone up by 11 per cent in the previous financial year. That average figure masked extremes, however, with some homes ratcheting up their fees by more than 30 per cent in a single year, citing financial viability as the justification.

Now UK Care Guide is about to publish the results of its second survey into the sector.

‘The picture has worsened,’ says Hussain. ‘We are seeing cumulative increases of approximately 15 to 35 per cent since 2022, with average annual costs for self-funders now regularly exceeding £60,000 in many parts of England.’

Double-digit annual increases in care home fees are becoming increasingly common, Hussain adds. ‘Increases above 20 per cent are not uncommon, particularly where a home is correcting what it considers to be below-market pricing or where care needs have been reassessed.’

The main drivers pushing up costs are the National Living Wage, which has increased by more than 30 per cent since 2022, a rise in employer National Insurance contributions in April 2025, and higher energy and food costs.

There are two types of care home residents – those who pay their own fees from their savings – so-called self-funders – and those who are funded by their local authority because their assets have fallen below £23,250.

Currently, anyone with savings over £23,250 has to pay the full cost of permanent, temporary respite or nursing home care – which can run up crippling six-figure bills.

In Wales the threshold for getting help with residential care is £50,000, while in Scotland, everyone’s personal care is paid for, but they have to pay for their accommodation if they have more than £35,000 in assets and capital.

Councils in England cap the amount that they are prepared to pay, so care homes look to privately funded residents to make up any shortfall in their income.

Hussain says: ‘The burden is falling disproportionately on self-funding residents who have no regulatory protection from how these costs are passed on.

‘There is no equivalent of a rent tribunal for care home fees, no cap on fee increases, no standardised notice period, and families often have very limited ability to challenge or negotiate.

‘Self-funders routinely pay significantly more than local authority-funded residents in the same home, effectively cross-subsidising council-funded places.

‘Meanwhile, the means-testing threshold for local authority support has been frozen at £23,250 for over 15 years.’

The NHS offers full funding for people who need to live in a care home or have home carer visits, known as Continuing Healthcare. This is not means tested, but the criteria for approval is notoriously strict, making it difficult for many families to secure.

Just 17 per cent of those who applied through the standard assessment process were deemed eligible for the funding, according to the latest NHS England data.

The Mail on Sunday has previously revealed that thousands of families are having funding for their elderly relatives wrongly removed during ‘reassessments’ and face costly appeals to have it reinstated.

How you can fight back

Although the options are limited, there are some useful tricks that self-funding residents can use to contest huge fee increases.

Hussain recommends asking the home for a breakdown of costs and a written explanation of the increase, though there is no legal requirement for the home to provide one.

The home should also have a complaints procedure so you could consider lodging one if you feel the hike was unfair. If this proves unsatisfactory, you can take your case to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. On its website, the Ombudsman confirms it will assess complaints relating to fees and charges. To make a complaint or find more information, go to lgo.org.uk/how-to-complain.

An Ombudsman spokesman says: ‘We are limited in what we can do and may not investigate a complaint if the terms around fee increases in the contract are fair and in line with law and guidance, and a provider increases fees in accordance with that contract.’

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However, taking the time to lodge a complaint can pay off if you make a strong case. Last year, the Ombudsman ordered refunds for 19 residents in a Devon home which had imposed increased charges on anyone needing care above an arbitrary 25-hour weekly limit. The home, Moors Park House in Bishopsteignton, later had its registration with the Care Quality Commission cancelled due to safeguarding issues and a failure to ‘operate good governance’.

As a last resort you can threaten to move your loved one to a different, cheaper home, assuming you can find one. However, Hussain warns that the current home may see this as just a bluff. He says: ‘Care homes know that once a resident is settled, the emotional and practical cost of moving is enormous, particularly for those with dementia or complex needs.’

Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, says: ‘Unless older people have sky-high care needs and few assets – making them eligible for state funding – they have to buy care themselves, in which case they are at the mercy of a highly imperfect market.’ Baroness (Louise) Casey has been tasked with reforming the care system in England and is running an independent commission looking into the issues plaguing the system. In a second phase, she will examine how social care is funded in the long term, but it isn’t due to report its recommendations until 2028.