Paying for care at home: council assessments and charges

Ask your council's adult social services for a needs assessment; in England you can start through GOV.UK, and in Northern Ireland you ask your Health and Social Care (HSC) trust. The assessment is free whatever your finances: the Care Act statutory guidance says councils can't charge for assessing needs or planning care, because those don't count as meeting needs.

In England, your needs meet the national eligibility criteria if they arise from a physical or mental impairment or illness, they stop you achieving 2 or more everyday outcomes, and as a result there is, or is likely to be, a significant impact on your wellbeing. The outcomes include managing nutrition, personal hygiene and toilet needs, getting dressed, using your home safely, keeping it habitable, keeping in touch with family and friends, and getting out to work, learning or local services. You count as unable to achieve an outcome if you need help with it, or if doing it alone causes significant pain or distress, puts you or others at risk, or takes much longer than normal.

If you qualify, the council draws up a care and support plan with a personal budget: what it would cost to meet your needs. Some help must always be free in England: intermediate care and reablement for up to 6 weeks (councils can offer longer), aids, minor adaptations costing £1,000 or less, and any service the NHS has a duty to provide.

If the council decides to charge, it must carry out a financial assessment and give you a written record showing how the charge was worked out. For care at home, the value of the property you live in as your main or only home is always ignored. Other savings and investments count: above £23,250 you can be asked to pay the full cost, and between £14,250 and £23,250 the council adds a notional 'tariff income' of £1 a week for every £250, or part of £250. For home care these limits are minimums, and councils can set higher ones.

On income, earnings are always ignored, as are the mobility parts of PIP and Disability Living Allowance. Councils can count most other benefits and pensions, including Attendance Allowance and the daily living part of PIP, but must then leave you with at least the minimum income guarantee (MIG). The MIG is what you keep after housing costs such as rent and Council Tax (net of any help with them) and after disability-related expenditure. It's a floor, not a target: councils can let you keep more, set a maximum charge, or charge only a percentage of your disposable income, so ask for your council's charging policy.

If the council counts disability benefits such as Attendance Allowance as income, the statutory guidance says it should assess your disability-related expenditure (DRE) and let you keep enough to pay for needs it isn't meeting. The list is deliberately open-ended: any reasonable extra cost directly linked to your disability can count, and the council should look beyond what's in your care plan.

Examples in the guidance include a community alarm; privately arranged care, including respite; specialist washing powder or extra laundry; extra costs of a special diet; specially made clothing or footwear, or extra wear and tear; extra bedding, for example because of incontinence; heating or metered water costs above the average for the area and type of home; reasonable costs of basic garden maintenance, cleaning or domestic help your disability means you need; buying and repairing disability equipment; internet access, for example for blind and partially sighted people; and transport costs above what the mobility part of PIP or DLA covers.

Keep receipts and bills, and ask for a DRE assessment if the council hasn't offered one. Councils can refuse an item where a reasonable cheaper alternative exists, for example continence pads available free from the NHS.

Take a single person in England over Pension Credit age who lives in their own home, gets the full new State Pension of £241.30 a week and the higher rate of Attendance Allowance of £114.60 a week (2026/27 rates), and has £20,000 in savings. Their council uses the national savings limits for home care and counts the Attendance Allowance, as it may.

Their savings are £20,000 − £14,250 = £5,750 above the lower limit, and £5,750 ÷ £250 = 23, so the council adds £23 a week of tariff income. Assessed income is £241.30 + £114.60 + £23 = £378.90. After leaving the £241.45 MIG, the most the council could charge is £378.90 − £241.45 = £137.45 a week. It must then take off any Council Tax they pay after Council Tax Reduction, and their assessed disability-related expenditure: each £1 of DRE the council accepts cuts the charge by £1. The charge also can't be more than the council's cost of the care.

In Wales the same person couldn't be charged more than the £100 weekly maximum, and because £20,000 is below Wales's £24,000 limit for home care, their savings wouldn't count. In Scotland, the personal care in their package would be free, so any charge could only be for other help such as housework or shopping.

In Wales, councils can't charge more than £100 a week for care and support at home. In December 2024 Welsh Ministers decided to keep the maximum at £100 rather than raise it. GOV.WALES says you may pay up to that maximum if you have a high disposable income or savings over £24,000, not counting your home. Councils must leave you with a minimum income amount: your basic benefit entitlement plus a buffer of at least 35%, plus at least 10% for disability-related costs. You can ask for a review of any charge you think is wrong.

In Scotland, you get personal care free from the council if your needs assessment shows you need it, whatever your age, income, savings or relationship status, and nursing care at home from the NHS is free. Councils can charge for other help, such as housework, shopping and making beds, after a financial assessment of your savings and income, and charges vary by council. You can refuse a financial assessment, but then you pay the full cost of the services arranged for you.

In Northern Ireland, your HSC trust assesses you. The Department of Health's home help circular, republished in 2015, says home help is free for people aged 75 or over and for people on certain means-tested benefits, with charges for others assessed under the trust's scheme. nidirect says there's normally a charge for meals at home. Ask your trust for its current charges in writing.

Yes. If you've been assessed as needing care and support, you can ask for direct payments: money from the council, or the HSC trust in Northern Ireland, to buy the services in your care plan yourself instead of having them arranged for you. GOV.UK says direct payments are available in England, Scotland and Wales and that you must be over 16; nidirect explains the Northern Ireland scheme, where you must be able to consent to and manage them, even if you need help to do so.

You can use direct payments to employ a personal assistant, in which case you become an employer, with the responsibilities that brings. In Scotland they're one of the options under self-directed support. In England direct payments are ignored as income in the financial assessment, and nidirect says they don't affect other benefits in Northern Ireland.

Attendance Allowance is the main one for people over State Pension age. It isn't means-tested and in 2026/27 is £76.70 a week at the lower rate or £114.60 at the higher rate. GOV.UK says getting it could mean extra Pension Credit, Housing Benefit or Council Tax Reduction. In Scotland you apply for Pension Age Disability Payment instead. Our Attendance Allowance guide and eligibility checker explain who qualifies.

Before a financial assessment, check the person gets everything they're entitled to, such as Pension Credit and Council Tax Reduction. A family member caring for at least 35 hours a week may qualify for Carer's Allowance, which is £86.45 a week in 2026/27; in Scotland it's Carer Support Payment.