Paying for residential care
Residential and nursing care is expensive. Everyone living in a care home has to pay something towards the cost.
How much you pay depends on how much money you have:
- If you have more than £23,250 in savings and assets then you will pay the full cost of your care.
- If you have less than £23,250 in savings and assets, we will do a financial assessment. This will tell us how much you can afford to pay.
If you own your home
If you are moving to a care home to live there, we will include the value of your home when we assess how much you will need to pay. We may offer you a loan to pay for care home costs.
We do not include the value of your main home if:
- you are receiving short-term or respite care
- your spouse or partner lives there
There may be other reasons we will not include the value of your home. We will discuss this with you at your financial assessment.
Find out if you need to pay
You can quickly check if you'll need to pay towards your care using our financial eligibility checker:
How we assess you
- We will talk to you to find out what you need help with and whether you are eligible for our support. This is called a Care Act needs assessment. You can start your assessment online.
- Once we know what support you need, we will work out the estimated cost of your care and inform you of this.
- We will do a financial assessment. This means we add up your income such as pensions and benefits, and any savings. We will tell you the maximum weekly amount you'll need to pay towards your care.
