Paying for care

Finding out whether the local authority will pay for some or all of the costs of care is a two-stage process:

• Care needs assessment. This will identify the nature and level of support required.
• Financial assessment. This is a means test to review the finances of someone requiring care.

Everyone is entitled to these assessments. It doesn’t matter how much money or capital they have.

If the financial assessment finds that someone’s income, including savings and investments, is above a certain limit they’ll be responsible for paying the costs of their care. This limit is known as the upper threshold. If the individual’s capital is below the upper threshold then the local authority will pay towards their care. Once their savings are below the lower threshold, the individual will only have to pay using their income towards their care and not from their savings.

These are the thresholds for the tax year 2019-20.

* This is the upper threshold for nursing home care. A lower threshold of £24,000 applies for care in the home.