Live in care · Clinique Alpa
How Much Does Live in Care Cost, and Who Pays
Written by Dr Mitesh Parmar, MBBS MRCGP. Published 29 August 2026.
The calculator comes out before anyone has said the word care. A care home brochure folded in half. A sister on speaker who was given a weekly fee this morning and cannot remember if VAT was extra. They type how much does live in care cost because a number is the only thing that lets them talk.
Live in care with Clinique Alpa starts at £1,650 a week for one person. It is a starting point, subject to assessment. It is not the quote for your mother's house.
The question they type is the fee. The question they mean is who pays, and whether paying it takes her home away.
How much does live in care cost, and who pays
The weekly fee is the number people ask. Funding is the question that decides whether the number is reachable. Nights, couples, and the support the day actually needs will move it.
What is in that starting fee, as published: the carer's time in the home, personal care, meals prepared in the house, household help, the written care plan, reviews, and management of the package, including cover for the carer's breaks and leave. The household provides the carer's meals and a private bedroom. Waking night cover, a second carer, and the carer's travel at the start of a placement are charged separately if they apply. Your written quote will set that out.
The NHS page many families land on first still talks in a wide weekly range. That is a countrywide sketch, not a figure for a house in Enfield.
Paying yourself
Most families who ring us pay privately. Savings, a pension, money from a family member, sometimes the sale or rental of another property. Attendance Allowance is often in the mix. It is a tax free benefit for people of State Pension age who need help or supervision, and it is not means tested. For 2026 to 2027 the lower rate is £76.70 a week and the higher rate is £114.60 a week, as published by GOV.UK. It will not cover a live in fee. Paying yourself does not mean you should skip a council needs assessment. Councils fund from the date they are contacted.
Council and local authority funding
If you want the council to pay towards care, a needs assessment comes first. Anyone can ask for one. Then a financial assessment looks at income, benefits, savings and other capital. In England, as published on nhs.uk, the council generally helps if savings sit under £23,250. Above that, you are usually expected to pay the full cost yourself until savings fall. For care in the person's own home, the value of the house they live in is usually left out of that calculation. That is the piece most people miss. They think staying at home still means selling the house. For a long stay in a care home the house is often counted.
If the council will pay, you are offered a personal budget, sometimes as a direct payment. Councils usually arrange care through providers they already hold contracts with. Clinique Alpa does not hold local authority contracts. We cannot invoice a council on your behalf. A family using council money would need to check whether a direct payment can be used with us.
NHS continuing healthcare
NHS continuing healthcare is a package of care arranged and funded by the NHS for adults whose main need is a health need. It is not means tested. It can be provided in the person's own home. Eligibility is decided by the integrated care board. We do not decide it, and we cannot invoice an integrated care board on your behalf. If it is awarded, it can fund care at home. If it is not, that is not a judgement on whether the person needs help. NHS funded nursing care is a different product. It does not pay for a carer in the spare room.
Read the NHS continuing healthcare page and the page on when the council might pay. Then come back to a quote that belongs to this house.
What we actually look at before we write a quote
What families tell us is that the first call is rarely tidy. Someone is in the car. Someone else has already written a number on a pad. We will not invent a fee to win that call.
We walk the home. Stairs, bathroom, whether a carer would have a room of their own. We ask about the nights, because the night is usually where the fee changes. Who gets up, how often, and whether anyone in the family is now the second person at risk. One person or a couple.
A doctor from the team carries out that assessment. The carer who then moves in is not a doctor and not a nurse. Nursing stays with the district nurse and the GP. We work alongside them. We do not replace them.
When the published weekly figure is the wrong number
Hourly visits can hold a household for a long time. Then they do not. The same is true of a starting fee that assumed quiet nights.
- Nights have become unsafe, or the family carer is now up so often that they cannot work the next day.
- Medicines are being missed, doubled, or left in the dosette.
- Weight is dropping, or meals are becoming toast because cooking takes too long.
- Care is needed for two people in one house, and only one person's needs have been priced.
- The daughter or son coordinating this has become the second person we would worry about.
When to call us sooner is when 2 or 3 of those are already true. A number copied from a homepage, without an assessment of the nights, is how families buy a daytime plan and hope the nights will behave. A care home remains the right call when the person needs a staffed setting, or when they have said they do not want a stranger living with them. For a couple who would otherwise pay two care home fees, live in care is usually the less expensive option. Compare a real quote with a real home's fees.
How care is arranged here
Clinique Alpa is a CQC regulated domiciliary care provider. We work across Enfield, Edmonton and the surrounding boroughs. Live in care starts at £1,650 a week for one person, subject to assessment. The fee rises with heavier support, broken nights, care for a couple, and more complex needs. You get a written quote after the assessment. The first conversation is with a manager, and there is no obligation. The assessment is charged separately. If you then start a long term package, that fee is credited against the first month. You meet the carer before care begins. We do not promise one named carer for ever.
Read the costs page for the full breakdown, what live in care actually involves, and how care is arranged.
You are allowed to want a straight number. You are also allowed to want a plan that still looks like their week.
Get a written cost breakdown, with no hidden extras. Read our costs page, or call 020 8882 8088 or 07777 594448. Live in care from £1,650 a week, published in full, subject to assessment. If the person has fallen, cannot be woken, or is severely breathless, call 999. Subject to availability.
Written by Dr Mitesh Parmar, MBBS MRCGP, registered manager of Alpa Care Ltd, a CQC regulated domiciliary care provider working across Enfield and Edmonton. This article is general information, not personal care advice. In an emergency call 999. For NHS advice call 111 or visit nhs.uk.
If you would like to talk something through, call 020 8882 8088 or see how it works.
Live in care from Clinique Alpa is provided by Alpa Care Ltd, registered with the Care Quality Commission for personal care, provider ID 1-9691685023.