One in three care home residents self-funding

More than a third of care home residents are self-funded, government statistics have revealed, as residents fear “being plunged into debt to prop up a broken system”.

The Office for National Statistics has published figures estimating the number of people who pay for their own care as opposed to the council paying for them. The data show that there were about 143,774 self-funded care home residents, compared with 248,153 state-funded.

Pete Davies, of the GMB union, said: “Many people are paying far above the rate that a local authority would pay for the same service, often being plunged into debt to prop up a broken system.”