Financial assessment for a care home

If your care and support assessment shows that you have eligible needs, you can have a financial assessment to work out how much you’ll need to pay towards your care home.

You can ask someone to be with you and support you during the financial assessment. This might be your partner, a family member, friend, or power of attorney.

How we work out how much you have to pay towards care

How much you have to pay will depend on your:

savings
assets – some of the things you own, such as your main home, other properties you own, land, stocks and shares
income

If you have:

more than £23,250 in savings and assets – you’ll have to pay for the full cost of your care and are known as a self-funder
between £14,250 and £23,250 in savings and assets – we’ll assume you can pay £1 per week towards your care for every £250 (or part £250) of your savings and assets. This is called tariff income.
less than £14,250 in savings and assets – we won't count them when we work out how much you have to pay.

These amounts are based on the savings and assets that we include as part of your assessment as listed below.

Savings and assets

When we work out what your savings and assets are, we do include:

money you have in bank and building society accounts
national savings certificates
premium bonds
investment bonds
stocks and shares
buildings or land you own
trust funds (unless they were awarded for personal injury or criminal injuries compensation)

we don’t include:

your personal possessions
the surrender value of any life insurance or annuity

We won’t include your home as an asset if:

you’re staying in a care home for less than a year (short stay) and you’re either:

planning to go home after your stay
selling your home to buy one that’s more suitable for you which you plan to move to

any of these people are still living in it:

your husband, wife, or civil partner
a single parent who you’ve separated from or divorced
children under 18 years old who are dependent on you – including adopted, fostered and step children
any relative aged 60 or over
any relative who is disabled and qualifies for disability benefits

Hiding or giving away your savings and assets

If you give away savings and assets or put them in someone else’s name – known as ‘deprivation of assets’ – to reduce the amount you pay towards your care, we may treat you as if you still had them and charge you.

Income

When we work out what your income is, we do include:

state pension and pension credits
income from a personal or occupational pension
working tax credit
the care part of disability living allowance (DLA) – this isn’t included for short stays of less than a year
the daily living part of personal independence payment – this isn’t included for short stays of less than a year
attendance allowance – this isn’t included for short stays of less than a year
most other benefits
tariff income - £1 per £250 (or part £250), between £14,250 and £23,250 from savings and assets

we don’t include:

earnings from your job – including bonuses and commission
self-employed earnings
mobility part of disability living allowance (DLA)
mobility part of personal independence payment (PIP)
child tax credit
child benefit
child maintenance payments
guardian’s allowance
council tax reduction

Your state benefits may be affected if you move into a care home, even for a short stay.

Personal expenses allowance

The law says that when we work out what you should pay towards the cost of your care home, we must leave you with a minimum amount of income to spend on things like clothes, toiletries and presents.

This is known as the ‘personal expenses allowance’ (PEA). The amount isn’t fixed – the government tells us every year how much the PEA should be.

Allowable household expenses for a short stay (less than a year)

We’ll include allowable household expenses in the financial assessment for the duration of your stay but they’ll be subject to review.

For example if:

you live with other people and pay board; you won’t get a household expense allowance
other people live with you, you’ll get a full household expense allowance
you live with your spouse or partner, then the household expense allowance will be divided equally

Allowable expenses are:

water rates
council tax
rent/mortgage
ground rent/ service charge
service charges
home buildings insurance
gas / electricity need a value for occupied and unoccupied
lifeline fees
court orders (maintenance)

We’ll also disregard any other payment you receive in order to meet the cost of your housing and / or to support independent living. This may include payments for warden support, emergency alarms or cleaning costs where you or someone you live with is unable to do this.

Care Contribution Estimator and online financial self-assessment

You can use the form if you:

live alone and require care in your own home
require long-term residential care
have had a care and support assessment from Adult Social Care, or;
want to know how much you might have to contribute towards your care needs in the future

If you’re a couple, living with family or need a financial assessment for a short stay in a care home, you’ll need to contact Adult Social Care.

The benefits of completing the financial self-assessment form are:

it’s the quickest and easiest way to find out how much you may need to pay towards your care and support
it has a built in calculator which updates you as you progress through the form
it’s confidential and you don’t have to share it with Adult Social Care if you don’t want to
it doesn’t need you to arrange photocopies of information or send information in the post that could get lost
you can save it to your computer or print it out for future reference
you only need an email address to register online and submit it directly to Adult Social Care for review

Find further information and guidance about the Adult Social Care Portal.

Care Contribution Estimator and Online Financial Self-Assessment

What happens after I have completed the financial assessment

After your financial assessment we’ll tell you:

what savings, assets and income we have included and how much you’ll have to pay towards your care
whether you qualify for the deferred payment scheme if you have a property asset and have applied for this scheme.

What if you don’t want to have a financial assessment

If you have eligible care and support needs following a care and support assessment and don’t wish to have a financial assessment, you’ll need to fund the cost of your care yourself.

You should check to see whether you are eligible for any benefits.

We would also recommend that you seek independent financial advice.