Fewer people are now opting to turn their elderly ones to institutional care. Research reveals that roughly 10 million people that are over 50 years old are taking care of their older ones.
Over the last 15 years, the number of caregivers has tripled. The expense of the decision to leave elderly ones in the care of institutional caregiving homes has ensured the popularity of at-home caregiving.
However, despite the increasing popularity of this trend, the decision to care for your elderly ones by yourself is accompanied by significant financial risks and personal sacrifices.
There are a lot of cases when people who have decided to provide at-home caregiving to their older ones wished they had understood the financial ramifications of their decisions at the time.
This highlights the importance of understanding the financial position that providing at-home caregiving for your elderly puts you.
The Cost Of Elderly Care
The cost of at-home care for your senior majorly depends on how long they spend with a caregiver, the depth of services they require and the supplies needed to facilitate their daily living.
How is the cost of at-home care calculated?
In late 2020, CareScout, a Genworth Financial company, conducted a large-scale survey that interviewed 57,981 elderly caregiving providers to complete 14,326 surveys.
The surveyed institutions were nursing homes, assisted living facilities, adult day health facilities, and home care providers.
- Over 90% of home care agencies charge hourly
- The average cost of home care in the US is $24-as at 2020
- At-home care costs vary according to location, licensing requirements and depth of care required
- The average monthly cost of at-home full-time care of seniors is $4,481, based on 44hour caregiving hours a week.
- The cost of home care services increased by an average of 1.88% – 3.80% yearly since 2004. This translates to a rapid growth in the home care industry, resulting in an increase in demand.
How are rates structured?
The general structure of pricing used by most home care aides and agencies is hourly pricing. Usually, a minimum of two to four hours a day or seven hours a week is the lowest offerable service.
If you have determined that your senior requires extensive assistance throughout the day, some agencies offer monthly or weekly contracts, especially for cases like this.
Common Home Care Cost Plans
Using Genworth’s average hourly home care rate of $24 as basis, here are some cost plans you might come across.
- 7 hours a week: $713 monthly – basic minimum for healthy seniors, caters for housework, companionship and meal preparation.
- 15 hours a week: $1,528 monthly – independently mobile and cognitively sound seniors that need little care.
- 30 hours a week: $3,055 monthly – an upgrade of the 15 hour weekly plan, caters more to companionship and stimulation.
- 44 hours a week: $4,481 monthly – full time caregiving.
Depending on how long your senior can stay on their own daily and the extensiveness of their daily care requirements, these plans are templates for costs you might incur.
For financial advice and other considerations , you can contact an elderly law attorney, an accountant, NDIS provider Sydney or a senior living advisor (SLA).