OLDER Hampshire residents will be able to take out a loan against their homes to help pay towards full-time care.

At a meeting held last Wednesday, Hampshire county councillors approved plans to implement low-interest deferred payment agreements which will allow elderly people to borrow against the value of their house to cover expensive care home costs.

The move will allow people either currently living in or moving to residential care homes who are unable to foot the bill because their capital is tied up in their home.

Those eligible must not have more than £23,250 in assets, excluding the house’s value, and will permit the council to place a first legal charge above anyone else with an interest in the property.

Cllr Patricia Stallard said: “All the members have been overwhelmed with the magnitude of the task.

“I’m happy to commend all the officers; they really have done a first class job and you have had to take on so many varieties.

“I don’t know how you’ve done it.”

Assistant director for adult services, Behrooz Vaezi, who led the project, said: “This has been a significant team effort.”

Chairman cllr Liz Fairhurst, told the adult social care and public health committee the “floodgates will open” when residents found out about the scheme, amid claims it would be tremendously popular with cash-strapped pensioners.