Your father or mother has just moved permanently into a care home. The hardest part seems over. But in the weeks that follow, many important tasks slip through the cracks—lost in the emotion and practical upheaval. The result: unclaimed benefits, bills continuing to arrive for an empty property, or contracts left unresolved.
Here are the seven tasks families most frequently overlook after a parent moves into a care home, along with the real consequences of missing them and how to handle each one.
Update benefits and social entitlements
This is often the first thing people think they’ve dealt with, yet it requires careful ongoing attention. Once your parent enters a care home, their entitlements may change. A care needs assessment by your local council’s adult social care department determines what care-related support is available, including any means-tested contributions towards fees. The council’s adult social services will work out what you must pay privately and what they will contribute based on your parent’s means and care needs.
If your parent qualifies for Attendance Allowance or other disability benefits, these may continue whilst in a care home, though some entitlements change when residential care begins. Many families don’t realise that new benefit claims must be submitted to DWP (Department for Work and Pensions) or your local council after the move. Housing benefit (now rolled into Universal Credit) may also apply depending on your parent’s circumstances and the care home’s status. If your parent’s income doesn’t cover all care home fees, it’s crucial to check whether local authority funding or top-up arrangements exist—and don’t wait until you’re in financial difficulty to ask: some support can be backdated, but only within strict time limits.
Notify all administrative and financial organisations
Your local council is rarely overlooked, but many other organisations are. The pension provider must be informed of the address change for payment of any pension, and some schemes offer specific support for care home entry that families never claim simply because they’re unaware it exists.
HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) must also be notified, particularly because care home fees can qualify for tax relief if your parent is self-funding—a significant allowance that is easily lost without proper declaration. Your parent’s insurer should be contacted: home insurance policies don’t cover residential care, and some policies contain specific clauses for residents in registered care homes. Banks and building societies must be informed if a power of attorney or other legal protection is now managing your parent’s finances.
The costly oversight: council tax on an empty property
An empty property is not automatically exempted from council tax. Unless the property is sold or rented out, council tax continues to be charged. Exemptions exist only if you apply explicitly to your local council, stating your parent has moved into care, and provide supporting evidence.
Deal with an empty property
This is often the most delayed task, because it’s emotionally difficult as well as practical. Yet an empty property continues to generate costs: rent, mortgage, council tax, insurance, maintenance. If your parent was renting, the tenancy must be ended promptly, respecting the notice period in the lease, which may sometimes be shortened if circumstances warrant it.
If the property is owned outright, the decision is different: rent it out, put it on the market, or leave it empty temporarily. Selling the property may fund care home fees over time, but it requires advance planning about your parent’s legal capacity to sign documents—particularly important if they lack mental capacity, in which case you may need a power of attorney or court order.
Cancel, transfer or adapt everyday contracts
Once the property question is addressed, numerous small contracts continue running unnoticed. Utilities—water, electricity, gas—must be cancelled or transferred depending on what happens to the property. The same applies to broadband, landline telephone, and all other subscriptions: newspapers, streaming services, telecare systems no longer needed once in a care home. A simple tracking sheet prevents these from slipping through the net:
| Contract | Action required |
|---|---|
| Water, electricity, gas | Cancel or transfer to new owner |
| Home insurance | Adapt or cancel depending on property status |
| Broadband and landline | Cancel with proof of care home entry |
| Other subscriptions | Individual cancellation—no automatic process |
Check legal arrangements and preserve essential documents
The care home contract deserves careful review: termination conditions, notice periods in case of death, how fees may change. It’s often signed under pressure in the days before admission and never read again, yet it contains clauses that bind the family for years.
If your parent is no longer able to manage their affairs independently, legal protection (a power of attorney or, if necessary, deputyship through the Court of Protection) should be considered to safeguard financial and medical decisions. You should also gather and organise key documents: birth and marriage certificates, NHS card, property deeds, insurance policies, savings bonds—and if they exist, any advance decisions about end-of-life care. These documents are often scattered between the closed home and items taken into the care home.
Coordinate medical care and maintain family contact
The move also requires reorganising healthcare. Your parent’s GP must be informed of the new address, and care coordination should be established between the GP, the care home’s medical staff, and any existing specialists. Without proper communication, treatments can be duplicated or stopped by mistake.
Finally, your parent’s adjustment to care home life in the first weeks deserves close family attention. Family contact remains the best indicator of wellbeing: regular visits, even brief ones, help spot quickly any distress, unusual confusion or integration difficulties that staff, despite their care, may not notice at the same pace as a close relative.
