Self-Funded Admissions to Care Homes. Funded/commissioned by: Department for Work and Pensions, Research Report No. 159

Self-funded residents form a substantial and important minority of the population of care homes. However, although policies on the financing of long-term care directly affect them, relatively little is known about self-funded residents, their financial and social resources, or the choices that they and their relatives make. This report presents findings from a survey commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions to explore the circumstances of self-funded residents. The survey was conducted in 1999/2000, and collected information on 921 residents admitted to 292 homes, and information on the characteristics of the homes. The survey was designed so that the characteristics of self-funded residents could be compared with those of publicly-funded residents obtained in the previous survey conducted by the PSSRU.