Advice for homeowners on funding the cost of your care

If your social care assessment shows that residential or nursing care is the best way to meet your needs, we will look at your finances to work out how much you have to pay. For more about how charges and entitlements are calculated, see:

Paying for care homes

If you're paying for it yourself, we can give you advice about getting the most for your money.

A breathing space – the ‘12 week property disregard'

If you own your home and are moving into residential or nursing care, the 12 week property disregard can give you breathing space to sell your home or make other arrangements to cover the cost of your care.

You may qualify for the 12 week property disregard if:

your weekly income is not high enough to pay your care home fees
you do not have other assets or savings of more than £23,250.

If you qualify, we will not take the value of your property into account when we assess how much you have to pay during the first 12 weeks of your permanent stay in a care home. We will only ask you to pay a contribution based on your income and other capital, such as savings.

During the 12 week period, we will pay the difference between your contribution and our standard charge.

After the 12 week period, we will take the value of your home into account when working out how much you should pay.

Deferred payment scheme

If you have to pay the full cost of your care and don't want to sell your home, or if there is a delay in selling your home, you can apply for the deferred payment scheme. This is when we agree to help with your care home fees while you sell your home or until you die.

You or your estate (the money and assets you have when you die) will have to pay this money back when you sell your home or when you die. We will not start charging interest on the money until then.