Elderly residents are devastated they will have to move out of a care home which is closing through lack of money.

Many of the 19 residents have already been uprooted from White Lodge Rest Home in Pembroke Crescent, Hove, and sent to other homes. A handful are remaining until the home closes for good on Monday.

Cheryl and Steve Bennett, who have run the home for 21 years are as dismayed as the residents but say they are unable to carry on running the home with the level of funding they receive.

They have not found a buyer to take it over as a going-concern and the two Edwardian properties which the home occupies have been snapped up by a developer who will convert them back into private homes.

Mollie Harman, 76, has lived in the home for eight years. She is still considering where she will be living on Monday.

She had to leave her last rest home in Hove because it closed. She said: "I feel terrible. I didn't think this place would ever close. I wanted to stay here but I can't see what else they can do."

Edward Campbell, 92, moved into White Lodge with his wife about a year ago. She became too unwell to live in the rest home so has gone into a nursing home in nearby Portland Road, where Mr Campbell visits twice a week.

He has been able to move into the rest home next to White Lodge so will be able to continue to make the visits.

The former bus conductor and painter, said: "I think it's very tragic. We have been treated very well here and wanted to stay. I will have to get acclimatised to somewhere else now."

Mr and Mrs Bennett have dedicated their lives to the caring profession but the funding has left them with £1.81 per hour per day to care for each funded resident - a sum they said in no way covered the rising cost of paying for elderly care, staff and the changes homes must make to meet new regulations.

Mrs Bennett said: "We aren't the first to close and we won't be the last."

Although some of the residents had private funds to pay for their care, two thirds relied upon state benefits to pay for their stay. But Mrs Bennett said the money given to pensioners to cover their care was too little and in recent years it had became increasingly difficult to cover costs.

She said: "Elderly care is grossly underfunded. It's abysmal. I'm sad and I suppose one feels a little bit bitter when you look back at all the years we worked so hard."

Sheila Bravery, chair of the East Sussex Brighton and Hove Residential Care Homes Association, said: "What makes me so angry is that this beautiful home is being closed and the residents put into the cheapest homes social services can find whether they want to be there or not."