Capital Depletion
Research type
Research Study
Full title
“When the money runs out”: capital depletion and transition out of self-funded care
IRAS ID
313016
Contact name
Philip Kinghorn
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Birmingham
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 9 months, 31 days
Research summary
Many people pay the full costs of social care themselves. Many care services are expensive and over time the person will use up a proportion of their savings. When savings/assets fall below £23,250 people can request help from the council, in the form of a means test and a needs assessment. The council may step in at this point to meet some or all of the cost of care. Little is known about people’s experience of asking for support, or what happens when there is a change from self-funding to council support. This research will involve speaking to the different groups involved to fill this knowledge gap. Proposed changes to the law (from 2023) may mean this shift from self-funding to council support affects more people in the future.
We will focus on care homes; we’ll start by interviewing around 24 care home managers/owners, and about 10-15 people each from three other groups:
• residents and their family;
• people in councils who buy care services or conduct financial assessments;
• those who provide independent advice.
From initial interviews, we’ll build up a picture of what’s happening. We’ll identify where there are gaps in that initial picture and where this is the case we will conduct additional interviews with those groups from whom more information is needed. We expect to conduct up to 90 interviews in total. When we have enough understanding of the transition from self-funding to council support, we will explore if and how this fits with economic theory.
We’ll use our overall understanding from the research to create resources to help councils, providers and independent advisers to support residents, improving their overall experience as they move from self-funding to council support. We’ll also consider the motivation of these different groups to change current practices.REC name
London - Camberwell St Giles Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/LO/0470
Date of REC Opinion
26 Sep 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion