1 What is a deferred payment agreement?
A deferred payment agreement is an arrangement with the County Council that allows you to use the value of your home to help pay the cost of your residential care. This means you don’t have to sell your home immediately to release the money to pay for your care.
Deferred payment agreements will suit some people’s circumstances better than others. It is only one way to pay for your care. There are other options you may want to consider. These are explained in our booklet.
We strongly recommend that you take financial advice before you decide whether a deferred payment agreement is for you. Our Carewise care funding scheme offers specialist financial advice, or you can get advice from other sources if you prefer.
2 How it works
We will usually only consider a deferred payment agreement after you have been in residential care for 12 weeks and if your home is included in your financial assessment.
We will ask you to sign a legal document (similar to a mortgage) which means we can place a ‘legal charge’ against your property
You will pay:
- the contribution towards your care from your income and savings that we have assessed you can afford
- an initial set-up fee of £670
- a property evaluation charge of £326 (if this is needed)
- an ongoing weekly charge of £10.00
- annual compound interest on the loan.
More details are provided in our booklet.
We will pay the part of your weekly costs that you can’t afford - up to a maximum total amount - using the value of your home as a guarantee that we will get the money back.
You can choose to either:
- sell your home and repay the loan at any time
- keep your home, and the deferred payment (the fees) will be repaid out of your estate after your death.
You can also choose to pay back the debt in another way if you prefer.
3 Who can have a deferred payment agreement
To be able to enter into a deferred payment agreement (DPA) you must:
- be assessed by a social care worker as needing residential care
- be living, or going to live, permanently in a registered residential care or nursing home
- own, or partly own, your home
- have savings and investments of less than £23,250 (not including the value of your main or only home)
- have the mental capacity to enter into a DPA, or have a legally-appointed person who is willing to do this for you.
We will also take account of other factors when deciding how much you can borrow; for example, where another person has a legal share in your home or some of the value is tied up in a mortgage or an equity-release scheme.
You will not be able to enter into a DPA if your home is not counted in the financial assessment of how much you can pay towards the cost of your care.
The value of your home will not normally be included in the financial assessment if your partner, a child under 18 or a relative who is over 60 or disabled still lives in your home.
4 Find out more
To find out more about DPAs speak to your social care worker or contact Adults' CarePoint.
You can also find more detail in our booklet:
For general information about paying for care or nursing home fees see our web page about paying for residential care.