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Care homes and benefits - Benefits that stop being paid if you live in a care home

When you or a member of your family go to live in a care home, the benefits you get may change.

Last reviewed 15 January 2024

Benefits that stop being paid if you live in a care home

If you get Carer’s Allowance for looking after another person, your benefit will stop when you move to live in a care home.

If you get Jobseeker’s Allowance, it will stop when you are sick and not able to look for work for more than two weeks.

In these cases, you should get advice to see if you can get another benefit instead.

If you get Universal Credit, you might need to check whether you need to change your claimant commitment to be able to carry on claiming Universal Credit while in a care home.

If your care home fees are paid in full or part by the local authority, National Health Service (NHS) or other public funds, payment of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) care component, Personal Independence Payment (PIP) daily living component, Adult Disability Payment (ADP) daily living component or Attendance Allowance (AA) will stop after you have been in a care home for 28 days.

If your DLA, PIP, ADP or AA payments stop, they can be paid again when you come out of the care home even if this is only for a short period of time, for example a weekend. If you come out of the care home but then return within 28 days, your benefit will stop again as soon as you return to the care home.

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