Retirement Living Glossary: Essential Terms from A to Z

If you're researching care or retirement housing for the first time, the jargon can be a barrier in itself. What's the difference between sheltered housing and extra care? What does "means test" actually mean for your savings? This glossary explains the terms you're most likely to meet, focused on the system in England.

How do the main types of retirement housing compare?

Several terms in this glossary describe housing types that sound similar but work differently in practice.

What do the money and funding terms mean?

• Self-funder – Someone who pays their own care fees in full, usually because their savings and assets are above the council's upper capital threshold.
• Means test – The local-authority financial assessment that decides how much you contribute towards care costs, based on income, savings and property.
• Deferred payment agreement – An arrangement with the council that lets you delay paying care home fees using the value of your home, so you don't have to sell it immediately.
• NHS Continuing Healthcare – Free care arranged and funded by the NHS for people with a primary health need, assessed separately from council funding. See the NHS social care and support guide.
• Third-party top-up – An extra payment, usually from family, that covers the gap between what the council will pay and a home's actual fees.
• Equity release – A way to access money tied up in your home, such as a lifetime mortgage, without selling and moving out. Get independent financial advice before using this to pay for care.
• Immediate needs annuity – An insurance product that pays a guaranteed income directly to a care provider for the rest of someone's life, in exchange for a lump sum.
• Pension Credit – A means-tested benefit that tops up low income for people over State Pension age; can also unlock other help. See GOV.UK — Pension Credit.
• Triple lock – The policy that increases the UK State Pension each year by whichever is highest: inflation, average earnings growth, or 2.5%.
• Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) – A pension that lets you choose and manage your own investments, rather than a provider doing it for you.

What legal terms should you know?

• Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) – A legal document letting someone you trust make financial or health and welfare decisions for you if you lose the ability to do so yourself. There are two types: property and financial affairs, and health and welfare. See GOV.UK — Lasting power of attorney.
• Mental Capacity Act – The law setting out how decisions must be made for people who can't make a particular decision for themselves, and how to assess capacity.
• Deputyship – A Court of Protection arrangement appointing someone to manage a person's affairs when they've lost capacity and no LPA was made in advance. Slower and more costly than setting up an LPA in good time.
• Advance decision to refuse treatment – A legally binding statement about medical treatments you don't want in future, made while you still have capacity.
• Property protection trust – A legal arrangement, usually set up through a will, intended to protect part of a home's value for chosen heirs.

What benefits and allowances come up most often?

• Attendance Allowance – A benefit for people over State Pension age who need help because of illness or disability, whether or not they currently get that help. See GOV.UK — Attendance Allowance.
• Personal Independence Payment (PIP) – A benefit for people with a disability or long-term health condition, usually claimed before State Pension age but sometimes still relevant afterwards.
• Council Tax Reduction – A discount on council tax for people on low income, including many pensioners.
• Housing Benefit – Help with rent costs for people on a low income, including some pensioners in retirement housing.
• Winter Fuel Payment and Warm Home Discount – Payments and discounts that help pensioners with heating costs. Eligibility rules change, so check current details on GOV.UK.
• Bereavement Support Payment – A benefit for widows, widowers or surviving civil partners after a spouse's death.
• Free personal care (Scotland) – In Scotland, personal care at home or in a care home is funded regardless of means for people aged 65 and over. This does not apply in England.

What care and health terms should you understand?

• Care needs assessment – A free assessment by your local council to establish what help you need and whether you're eligible for council-funded support. Apply via GOV.UK — Apply for a care needs assessment.
• CQC rating – The Care Quality Commission rates every registered care home as Outstanding, Good, Requires improvement, or Inadequate. Always check a home's current rating before visiting. See CQC.
• Telecare – Technology such as pendant alarms or sensors that lets someone live independently while support is on hand if something goes wrong.
• Admiral Nurse – A specialist dementia nurse who supports families as well as the person with dementia. See Dementia UK.
• Reablement – Short-term, often free, support to help someone regain skills and confidence after a hospital stay or health setback, usually arranged by the council.