A live-in carer costs from £225 per full 24 hours with us, which works out at about £1,575 a week (July 2026 rates). That is a fully managed service: the carer is employed, trained, supervised and insured by Aims, and your exact price is confirmed after a free home assessment. Couples share one carer and one bill.
That is the short answer. The longer answer is that “how much does a live-in carer cost” is really three questions wearing one coat, because there are three quite different ways to get a live-in carer, and the headline price only tells you which coat you are looking at. Pop the kettle on and we will go through the lot.
What does live-in care actually include?
Live-in care means a trained care professional lives in the home and provides support around the clock: personal care, medication, meals, housekeeping, companionship, and a calm presence at 3am when the landing creaks. It is the full-fat alternative to a care home, without the moving boxes.
With a managed provider like us, the weekly fee covers the carer’s wages, their training, their DBS checks, their insurance, and the office full of people supervising the care and answering the phone when plans change. All 52 of our carers are employed by Aims directly, and we have been doing this for more than fifteen years, for more than 2,000 families, who rate us 9.3 out of 10 across 50 reviews on homecare.co.uk. The full price list lives on our pricing page.
You provide the carer with their own bedroom, and meals are usually shared household costs. More on that in the FAQs, because it is the second most common question we get after “do you do ironing” (different article, and yes).
What affects the price of live-in care?
Every from-price on the internet, ours included, comes with the same honest caveat: the real number depends on the person. The things that move it are not mysterious:
- The level of support needed. Companionship and meals is a different job from full personal care with complex medication, and it is priced like one.
- Nights. A carer who sleeps normally and is rarely disturbed is a different arrangement from one who is up several times a night. If nights are the main event, our night care service may be worth comparing too.
- One person or two. Couples share one carer and one bill, quoted at assessment.
- Specialist needs. Dementia care and palliative care ask more of a carer, in skill and in stamina.
What does not move our price: the day of the week. Our rates are the same seven days a week, no weekend or bank holiday premiums, which makes budgeting refreshingly dull. The assessment that produces your exact quote is free, at home, with no obligation, and nobody in a suit.
What are the three ways to get a live-in carer?
This is the part most cost guides skip, and it is the part that explains why one website says live-in care costs one thing and another says something quite different. You can buy live-in care three ways, and the responsibilities land in very different laps:
| Fully managed provider (like Aims) | Introduction agency | Employing a carer yourself | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headline price | From £225 per 24 hours, about £1,575 a week (July 2026) | Often lower on paper | Lowest looking, until the responsibilities arrive |
| Who employs the carer | The provider. Ours are employed, trained and insured by Aims | Nobody you would recognise: the carer is usually self-employed | You. Congratulations, you are now an employer |
| Cover for holidays and sickness | The provider arranges it | Generally your problem to solve | Entirely your problem to solve |
| Training and supervision | Provider’s responsibility, ongoing | Varies; typically not supervised by anyone | Whatever you arrange and pay for |
| Regulation of the care | CQC-regulated service | The introduction may be a business, but the care itself generally has no CQC oversight | No CQC oversight |
| Paperwork | One invoice | Agency fee plus paying the carer | Payroll, employer’s National Insurance, pension auto-enrolment, insurance, holiday pay, sick pay, references, DBS checks |
We are not going to pretend to know exactly what an introduction agency or a self-arranged carer would cost you, because it genuinely varies and we would rather say nothing than make a number up. What we can say is how the cost is structured. With an introduction agency you typically pay a fee for the match and then pay the self-employed carer directly, and when that carer is on holiday, unwell, or simply moves on, finding and vetting the replacement is on you. With direct employment the wage is only the opening bid: employer’s National Insurance, pension auto-enrolment, employer’s liability insurance, holiday and sickness cover, references and DBS checks are all yours to run, forever, including the week you were hoping to be on holiday yourself.
A managed service costs more per week on paper precisely because all of that is inside the price. Whether that trade is worth it is your call. We know which side of the table we sit on, obviously, but we would rather you compared the three honestly than discovered the difference at 11pm on a bank holiday.
Who covers the carer’s breaks and holidays?
Here is a question almost nobody asks until it matters: live-in carers are human beings, not kitchen appliances. They need daily breaks, proper time off, and holidays, and the law and basic decency both agree on this.
So whoever you are talking to, ask three questions. Who covers the carer’s daily break? Who covers their holidays and sick days? And is that cover included in the price or charged on top? With an introduction agency or direct employment, the honest answer is usually “you do, and you pay for it separately, if you can find someone”. With a managed provider, cover is the provider’s job.
At Aims, break and cover arrangements are agreed as part of the care plan at your free assessment, because every household is different: some have family nearby who like taking over for an hour, some want us to arrange everything. The point is that it is planned on paper before it is ever needed, rather than improvised by phone. Continuity matters enormously to the person being cared for, and “a stranger arrived on Tuesday” is not a care plan.
Is live-in care cheaper than a care home?
For one person, live-in care and a care home are in the same territory, and for a couple it is not even close. Here are the weekly numbers side by side:
A few honest footnotes to those bars. Our £1,575 is a from-rate, confirmed after assessment, and covers a whole household staying in its own home. The care home averages are UK-wide (carehome.co.uk, updated 30 July 2026): dementia care averages more, at £1,343 residential and £1,564 nursing, and fees rose roughly 10% in the year to December 2025. Regionally the range runs from £1,112 a week in the North East to £1,767 for dementia nursing in London, and Surrey is not famous for being the cheap end of anything.
There is also a quieter financial point. For care in your own home, your house is never counted in the council means test. For a permanent care home move, it usually is, unless a partner or certain qualifying people still live in it. And on the softer side of the ledger: 97% of people say they would rather stay in their own home than move into a care facility. The full comparison lives in our guide to live-in care versus a care home in Surrey.
How much does live-in care for a couple cost?
This is where the arithmetic stops being polite. Care homes charge per person. Two average residential places for a couple come to about £2,596 a week, which is 2 × £1,298 at the July 2026 UK average, and that is before either of them needs nursing or dementia care, and before anyone mentions the word “annexe”.
Live-in care for a couple is one carer, one household, one bill. We quote couples individually at the free assessment, because two people rarely have identical needs, but one arrangement supporting two people at home is a very different sum from two sets of care home fees. It also means nobody has to have the conversation about living apart after fifty years of arguing over the crossword together, which in our experience is the part families actually care about. Our live-in care for couples page has the detail.
Can you get help paying for live-in care?
Quite possibly, and finding out costs nothing but a phone call and a form or two.
- Attendance Allowance is £76.70 or £114.60 a week for 2026/27, not means-tested, for people over State Pension age who need help with daily living. Details at gov.uk.
- A council needs assessment is free for everyone, whatever your savings. If you qualify for support, direct payments let you spend your personal budget with a provider you choose. In Surrey, call adult social care on 0300 200 1005.
- NHS Continuing Healthcare can fund care in full, with no means test, where needs are primarily health-related, and it can be delivered at home. Start with the NHS guide.
- The means test, for 2026/27: over £23,250 in savings you self-fund; between £14,250 and £23,250 the council contributes on a sliding scale; and remember the house is not counted for care at home. The £86,000 cap on care costs, incidentally, was cancelled in July 2024, as we explained at length in our article on the care fees cap.
A word of gentle consumer advice: several big-name care websites are still quoting benefit rates from a year or two ago, which is how families end up budgeting around numbers that no longer exist. Every figure in this article is the 2026/27 rate, dated, with the source at the bottom. We also help families with the forms themselves, free, with tea, as part of our funding support.
What should you do next?
- Write down what a week of care actually needs to look like. Nights included? Medication? Two people or one? Ten honest minutes with a notepad beats an hour of brochure-reading.
- Ask every provider the three cover questions. Who employs the carer, who covers breaks and holidays, and is that cover in the price? The answers sort the field quickly.
- Book a free assessment. We visit, listen, and give you an exact written quote rather than a from-price and a shrug. If you go ahead, care can begin within 24 to 48 hours.
Frequently asked questions.
What does the weekly fee include with a managed provider?
With Aims, the fee covers the carer’s wages, training, DBS checks and insurance, plus supervision of the care and cover arrangements agreed in your care plan. The carer is employed by us, the service is CQC-regulated, and you get one bill. Exact price after a free assessment.
Is live-in care cheaper than a care home?
For one person it is comparable: from £1,575 a week with us against UK averages of £1,298 residential and £1,535 nursing (July 2026). For a couple, one live-in arrangement usually beats two care home fees of about £2,596 a week comfortably.
Can couples share one live-in carer?
Yes, and it is one of the strongest arguments for live-in care: one carer, one household, one bill, rather than two separate care home places charged per person. We quote couples individually at a free assessment, since two people rarely need exactly the same support.
Do I have to provide food and a room for the carer?
Yes. A live-in carer needs their own bedroom, and meals are typically shared household costs, since the carer is living and eating in the home. It is worth checking the spare room honestly before the assessment: a bed, a door, and somewhere to put a mug.
If you are weighing up live-in care and would like a real number instead of a range, call our Leatherhead team on 01372 386222 or book a free assessment. We will bring an exact quote, honest answers to the awkward questions, and no beige brochure.
Sources and references.
- Aims Homecare price sheet, July 2026, at aimshomecare.co.uk/pricing
- carehome.co.uk, care home fees and costs, updated 30 July 2026 (UK average weekly fees and regional range)
- GOV.UK, Attendance Allowance, 2026/27 rates
- GOV.UK, Social care charging for 2026/27, local authority circular, 17 February 2026 (means-test thresholds)
- NHS, NHS Continuing Healthcare
- House of Commons Library, briefing CBP-9315 (cancellation of the care costs cap, 29 July 2024)
- Surrey County Council, adult social care, 0300 200 1005