Financial assessment for care at 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 in your own home, in someone else’s home (shared lives), supported living or extra-care housing.

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 properties you own (except the home you live in), 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. 

When we work out what your savings and assets are,

we do include:

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

we don’t include:

• the home you currently live in
• your personal possessions
• the surrender value of any life insurance or annuity

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
• the care part of DLA
• the daily living part of PIP
• attendance allowance
• most other benefits
• most other forms of income
• 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
• working tax credit
• child benefit
• child maintenance payments
• guardian’s allowance
• council tax reduction

General living expenses

The law says that when we work out what you should pay towards your care, we must leave you with enough money for your general living expenses – this is known as the minimum income guarantee.

This varies according to your circumstances and is specified by central government in the Care and Support (Charging and Assessment of Resources) Regulations 2014.

If you have a disability, we must make sure that you keep enough money to pay for the things you need because of your disability. We check this when we do your financial assessment.

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

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.

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. 

It is also recommended that you seek independent financial advice.

What if your financial situation changes in the future

If your financial situation changes, you should contact Adult Social Care.

Factsheets

Further reading