Visiting home care in London typically costs between £26 and £38 an hour, while live‑in care usually runs from around £1,000 to £1,500 a week, depending on need and provider. Before you commit to either, check whether your council will contribute through a financial assessment, and whether Attendance Allowance or NHS Continuing Healthcare could reduce your bill. Those three checks come before any provider comparison.
TL;DR:
- Visiting care in London costs between £26 and £38 per hour, with higher charges for weekends, nights, and high support needs.
- Live-in care usually costs £1,000 to £1,500 weekly, with complexities like dementia increasing the top end.
- Funding options include council assessments, Attendance Allowance, and NHS Continuing Healthcare, but most families use a mix of these.
- Actual care costs should account for additional expenses like relief cover, equipment, and household bills, which often cause budget overruns.
- A crossover point exists at about 35 hours of weekly visiting care, where live-in care may be more cost-effective or offer better constant company.
London sits at the top end of the national range, and there is a reason for that. The Homecare Association’s minimum price sets a sustainable hourly benchmark that covers wages, travel time and overheads, with a higher variant reflecting the London Living Wage. Agencies operating below that figure are usually cutting into pay, training or continuity of care, not making a saving.
Market snapshots put visiting care at £26 to £38 an hour in 2026, with London consistently at the higher end because of wage costs and travel time between visits. Which? confirms that visiting care is usually charged by the hour and that rates vary by region and by how intensive the support needs to be.
Live‑in care is priced weekly rather than hourly. PrimeCarers puts typical London live‑in fees at around £1,000 to £1,200 a week for standard care, rising to £1,200 to £1,500 for more complex needs such as advanced dementia. You can read more detail on dementia live‑in care costs if that applies to your family.
What the headline figure usually covers, and what it often does not:
Weekend and Bank Holiday visits often carry an uplift of a fixed amount or percentage on the standard rate, and most agencies also charge more for waking nights than sleeping nights because the carer is active rather than resting on call. Ask for these figures in writing before you sign anything.
Most London families end up funding care through a mix of their own money and public support, so it is worth working out which category you fall into early. Local authorities carry out a financial assessment before deciding whether they will contribute, and the current guidance for 2026 to 2027 sets the capital threshold at £23,250 for England. Above that figure in savings and assets, you are treated as a self‑funder.
Local practice varies once you are through that assessment. Richmond council’s booklet is a useful example of how councils explain arrangement fees, top‑up rules and direct payments, which let you manage your own care budget rather than have the council commission it for you.
Two other routes are worth checking before you assume you must self‑fund in full:
Once you know roughly which funding category applies, the actual sum is simple to build. For visiting care, multiply your weekly hours by the hourly rate, then add any night supplement and travel top‑ups the agency quotes separately. For live‑in care, start from the weekly fee and add the carer’s food allowance, an estimate for your own household running costs, and a budget line for relief cover when your usual carer has time off.
Two worked examples show how this plays out in practice:
The crossover point where live‑in usually becomes better value than visits sits at around 35 hours a week of visiting care, according to PrimeCarers’ funding analysis. Below that, hourly visits tend to work out cheaper. Above it, a live‑in arrangement often costs about the same or less while giving your relative constant company rather than a series of separate calls. Couples in particular tend to save by moving to live‑in, a point covered in our guide to live‑in care costs for couples.
Price is only half the decision. The other half is whether the agency will still be reliable in six months, when the initial enthusiasm has worn off and cover gets tested. Start with CQC registration and read the most recent inspection report rather than taking a “good” rating at face value, since reports often flag specific strengths and gaps.
Before signing, insist on seeing these in writing:
Ask directly whether carers are employed by the agency or working as privately contracted individuals, since this affects who is responsible for cover, tax and continuity. Our checklist for choosing a London home care agency and list of questions to ask agencies cover this in more depth.
Pro Tip: If a quoted hourly rate sits well below the Homecare Association’s published minimum, ask directly how the agency covers holiday pay, travel time and training, because that gap has to come from somewhere.
Care plans rarely stop at the headline hourly rate or weekly fee, and the gap between the quote and the actual invoice is usually where budgets slip. Agency administration fees for setting up a care package or changing hours at short notice are common, and some agencies charge separately for the initial assessment visit that builds your care plan.
Equipment is another area families often underestimate. Items such as hoists, profiling beds or bathing aids are not usually included in a care agency’s fee, and while some can be borrowed through occupational therapy referrals, others need to be bought or hired privately. Build in a contingency line for equipment rather than assuming it is covered.
Relief cover deserves its own budget line too. When a regular carer is on holiday or off sick, someone still needs to provide the visit or stay, and agencies vary in how they price that cover, sometimes at a standard rate and sometimes at a premium. Ask this question before you sign, not after the first gap in cover appears.
Care costs tend to rise rather than fall as needs increase, so it helps to plan for a range rather than a single fixed figure. Reviewing your budget every few months against actual hours used, rather than the original estimate, catches drift before it becomes a shock.
Homeowners sometimes use a lifetime mortgage or other equity release product to fund ongoing care costs without selling the family home, though this reduces the value of the estate and carries long‑term interest costs that are worth discussing with an independent financial adviser first. Deferred payment arrangements, offered by some local authorities for residential costs, are generally not available for home care in the same way, so self‑funders paying for visiting or live‑in care usually need to plan from income, savings or equity release rather than a council deferral.
Reviewing entitlement to Attendance Allowance or NHS Continuing Healthcare annually is worth doing, since needs and circumstances change and an earlier decision may no longer reflect your relative’s current situation. Our page on paying for home care sets out the practical side of these funding checks in more detail.
The cost families miss most often is not the headline rate. It is relief cover: the days when a regular carer takes annual leave and someone else has to step in, sometimes at a different rate. Over 30 years of arranging home care across London, we have seen this catch out more families than any other single item on the invoice.
Our practical tip is straightforward: build relief days and carer food costs into your budget from the start, rather than treating them as occasional extras. A weekly figure that looks tight in month one usually gets tighter once real life, holidays, illness and unexpected hospital visits, is factored in.
— Dan
A domiciliary care agency has arranged home care across London for over 30 years, offering call‑in visits, live‑in care, dementia support, respite cover and specialist support for adults and children with additional needs. Every carer is DBS‑checked and the agency is regulated by the CQC, so the checks this article recommends are commonly advised for any provider.
If you want a cost estimate based on your own hours and needs rather than a general range, get in touch through our home care services page for a personalised quote, or download our free home care guide for a fuller walkthrough of options before you decide.
This article is general information, not a substitute for advice from a qualified financial advisor. Consult a qualified financial professional about your own circumstances before acting on anything here.
Visiting home care in London typically costs between £26 and £38 an hour, according to market snapshots for 2026. Rates depend on the time of day, whether it is a weekend, and how complex the care needs are.
Live‑in care in London typically runs from around £1,000 to £1,500 a week, with PrimeCarers citing £1,120 a week as typical for standard care. Costs rise towards the top of that range for dementia or more complex needs.
It depends on a financial assessment and a capital threshold of £23,250 for England. Below that in savings and assets, and with eligible needs, you may receive some contribution; above it, you are generally treated as a self‑funder.
The Homecare Association publishes a minimum sustainable price covering wages, travel and overheads, with a higher figure for London reflecting the London Living Wage. A rate well below this benchmark usually signals underfunded pay or training somewhere in the service.
Yes, Attendance Allowance is not means‑tested and pays £77 or £115 a week depending on care needs, for those over State Pension age. It can be used towards home care costs alongside any council contribution or self‑funded portion.
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