Care Funding Calculator
Understanding Care Funding
Working out who pays for care is one of the most stressful parts of arranging it, and one of the least well explained. This guide walks through the thresholds, the NHS funding routes most people are never told about, and what to do if the money simply is not there. Use the calculator above for a personalised estimate, and this page to understand what sits behind the numbers.
Figures below apply to England for the 2026/27 financial year unless stated otherwise. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland operate different rules, and the calculator accounts for these.
How care funding works
Is adult social care free?
Generally, no. Unlike NHS treatment, adult social care in England is means-tested, so what you pay depends on your income and savings. There are important exceptions. NHS Continuing Healthcare is fully funded and free at the point of use, and Scotland provides free personal and nursing care to everyone assessed as needing it. Most people fall somewhere between paying everything and paying nothing.
What are the different types of care funding?
There are six routes, and many people use more than one at the same time.
- Local authority funding. Means-tested support from your council, based on a needs assessment and a financial assessment.
- Self-funding. Paying privately, either from income, savings, property, or a care fees annuity.
- NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC). The NHS pays for everything. Not means-tested.
- Funded Nursing Care (FNC). An NHS contribution towards nursing costs in a nursing home. Not means tested.
- Welfare benefits. Attendance Allowance, Pension Credit, Council Tax reductions and others, which sit on top of everything else.
- Section 117 aftercare. Free aftercare for anyone detained under certain sections of the Mental Health Act. Frequently overlooked.
How does social care work, and what is the first step?
Two separate assessments, in this order.
The care needs assessment. This is free, available to anyone who appears to need care, and arranged through your local council's adult social services team. It establishes what support is needed. Your money is irrelevant at this stage, and you are entitled to an assessment regardless of how much you have.
The financial assessment, or means test. This happens afterwards and establishes who pays for the support identified.
Requesting the needs assessment first, before making private arrangements, is the single most useful thing most families can do. It creates a written record of need that everything else is built on, including funding decisions, CHC referrals and future reviews.
Paying for care: the means test
How much savings can I have before paying for care?
Care funding is means tested against your total capital, including savings, investments and, in some circumstances, your property.
Above £23,250. You fund your care in full, which makes you a self-funder.
Between £14,250 and £23,250. The council contributes on a sliding scale. You pay an additional £1 per week for every £250 of capital above the lower threshold. This is known as tariff income.
Below £14,250. Your capital is disregarded completely.
One point is often misunderstood. Below the lower limit, your savings stop counting, but your income does not. Your state pension, private pensions and most other income are still assessed and go towards the fee, leaving you with a protected minimum. Falling below £14,250 does not mean your care becomes free.
These thresholds have not increased since April 2010.
Do I have to sell my home to pay for care?
Not necessarily, and rarely in a hurry.
Your home is disregarded entirely if your spouse or partner still lives there, or if a relative does who is over 60, incapacitated, or a child under 18. It is also disregarded for the first 12 weeks of a permanent care home stay, and disregarded completely if you are receiving care in your own home rather than moving into a care home.
If the property does count, a Deferred Payment Agreement lets the council pay your fees and recover the money later from your estate or from the eventual sale. Councils charge interest and an administration fee, and eligibility criteria apply. Even so, it removes the pressure to sell into a poor market or at a difficult moment.
How much money am I allowed to keep in a care home?
If your care home place is arranged and part funded by the council, you keep a Personal Expenses Allowance of £31.80 per week (England, 2026/27). This is a legal minimum that the council cannot reduce. It is yours for toiletries, clothing, hairdressing, phone bills, day trips, or anything else you choose. It must not be spent on care the council has already contracted for.
Who pays for home care?
The same means test applies, but with two significant differences in your favour.
First, your property is never counted when you are being cared for in your own home. Second, instead of the Personal Expenses Allowance, you are protected by the Minimum Income Guarantee. This is a weekly income floor, set by the government, that the council must leave you with after charging, intended to cover rent, food, utilities and living costs. The exact figure depends on your age and circumstances and rises each April.
Councils also have discretion in how they charge for non-residential care, so charging policies genuinely vary between areas.
Use the calculator above to see how these thresholds apply to your own situation.
Free NHS care funding
Who qualifies for free care funding?
The main route is NHS Continuing Healthcare, a full package of care arranged and paid for by the NHS, with no means test and no contribution from you at all. It covers nursing home fees in full, or the cost of care in your own home.
CHC is not led by diagnosis. It does not matter what condition you have. What matters is how your needs present day to day. To qualify, you must have what the National Framework calls a primary health need, meaning your care needs are driven predominantly by health rather than by social or personal care.
What are the four criteria for CHC funding?
Assessors judge your needs against four key characteristics. These sit at the heart of a CHC decision, and understanding them changes how you engage with the process.
Nature. The type and quality of your needs, and the effect they have on you.
Intensity. How severe and how frequent your needs are, including whether they require sustained support throughout the day and night.
Complexity. How your conditions interact, and how much skill and judgement it takes to manage them safely.
Unpredictability. How much your needs fluctuate, and what the risk is if the right response is not available immediately.
You do not need to score highly on all four. A high level of need in one characteristic, or a combination across several, can establish a primary health need. Unpredictability in particular is often under-argued by families, and evidence of episodes that could not have been anticipated carries real weight.
Alongside these, the assessment scores you across 12 care domains using a Decision Support Tool. The domains cover behaviour, cognition, communication, mobility, nutrition, continence, skin, breathing, medication, psychological needs, altered states of consciousness, and any other significant need.
How do I get full CHC funding?
The process has three stages.
1. The Checklist. An initial screening, which can be completed by a nurse, social worker or GP. Anyone can ask for one. The threshold to pass is deliberately low, because it only determines whether a full assessment goes ahead.
2. The Decision Support Tool. A full multidisciplinary assessment across the 12 domains, carried out by at least two professionals from different disciplines. You and your family have a right to be involved and to contribute evidence.
3. The ICB decision. The Integrated Care Board makes the final decision, usually within 28 days of the Checklist.
If you are turned down, you can ask for a local review and then an independent review by NHS England. A significant proportion of appeals succeed, so a refusal is not the end of the road.
Does dementia qualify for CHC?
A dementia diagnosis on its own does not qualify you, but dementia frequently produces exactly the pattern of need that CHC is designed for, and many people with advanced dementia are wrongly told they are not eligible.
The test is the same four characteristics. Where dementia brings behaviour that puts the person or others at risk, cognitive needs requiring constant supervision, swallowing or nutrition difficulties, or unpredictable escalation, that can amount to a primary health need. Being described as having social care needs simply because the support looks like personal care is a common mischaracterisation, and one you can challenge.
Can CHC funding be backdated?
Sometimes. Where there has been an unreasonable delay in assessing someone who should have been assessed, or where a decision is overturned on review, funding can be backdated to the date eligibility should have been established, and fees already paid can be refunded.
Retrospective claims covering periods before an assessment took place are subject to strict time limits, so it is worth acting quickly if you believe an assessment should have happened and did not.
Does CHC funding affect the state pension?
No. Your state pension continues to be paid as normal, and CHC is not means-tested, so your income and savings have no bearing on eligibility or on what you receive.
Other benefits do interact, however. If you are in a care home fully funded by the NHS, Attendance Allowance and the daily living component of PIP normally stop after 28 days. If you are receiving CHC in your own home, the position depends on your circumstances. Bear in mind too that CHC funds your care, so if you are at home you still meet your own living costs, rent and food.
What is Funded Nursing Care?
If you live in a nursing home and do not qualify for full CHC, the NHS still contributes towards the registered nursing element of your care.
The rate from 1 April 2026 is £267.68 per week in England. A higher rate of £368.24 applies only to people who were on the previous high band before October 2007. FNC is not means tested, so it applies whether you are a self-funder or council-supported, and it is paid directly to the home, meaning your invoice should show it as a deduction.
You must be assessed for CHC before FNC is considered. It is worth checking your invoices carefully, because families sometimes pay full fees for months without ever being told that FNC exists.
Scotland operates a different system entirely. Free personal and nursing care payments from 1 April 2026 are £260.30 per week for personal care and £117.10 per week for nursing care, available to everyone assessed as needing them regardless of income or savings. Scotland's residential capital limits are £35,000 and £21,500. The calculator applies the correct rules for your nation.
The calculator above will tell you whether CHC or FNC is likely to apply in your circumstances.
Getting help for an elderly parent
How do I get help for elderly parents?
Start with a care needs assessment from their local council. You can request one on their behalf. It is free, it does not depend on their finances, and it is the gateway to everything else.
At the same time, ask for a carer's assessment for yourself if you are providing support. It is a separate legal entitlement and can unlock respite, equipment, or a direct payment in its own right.
If your parent has been in hospital, ask specifically about a CHC Checklist before discharge. Discharge planning is where CHC is most often missed.
What benefits can my elderly parents get?
These are frequently unclaimed and worth checking.
Attendance Allowance. For people over State Pension age who need help with personal care or supervision. It is not means-tested, it is tax-free, and it is paid at two rates depending on whether help is needed during the day, at night, or both. It cannot be backdated before the date of claim, so it is best claimed as soon as needs arise.
Pension Credit. Tops up low incomes and acts as a passport to other help.
Council Tax reduction or disregard. This includes a full disregard where someone is severely mentally impaired.
Carer's Allowance. For a carer providing at least 35 hours a week, subject to an earnings limit.
Winter Fuel Payment, NHS travel costs and the Warm Home Discount, where applicable.
What if an elderly parent has no money?
This is the situation the system is actually designed for. If their capital is below £14,250, the council meets the cost of their assessed needs, with their income contributing and the Personal Expenses Allowance or Minimum Income Guarantee protected.
Nobody is left without care because they cannot pay. The council has a legal duty under the Care Act 2014 to meet eligible needs. The means test determines the size of the contribution, not whether care happens at all.
One word of caution. Avoid moving money or property out of a parent's name in order to get below the threshold. Councils can treat this as deprivation of assets and assess the position as though the money were still there.
What happens if an elderly person has no one to care for them?
The local authority still has a duty to assess and to meet eligible needs. Where someone has no family member or friend able to support them through the process, they are entitled to an independent advocate to represent their interests during assessment and care planning.
If you are concerned about someone who is at risk and not receiving the care they need, contact the council's adult safeguarding team. You do not need to be a relative to raise a concern.
How much can I pay my daughter to care for me?
If you receive council funding as a direct payment, you can use it to employ a carer of your choosing, including, in many cases, a family member. There is an important restriction. Direct payments generally cannot be used to pay a close relative who lives in the same household, except where the council agrees it is necessary. A relative living elsewhere is usually fine.
If you are self-funding, you can pay a family member whatever you agree between you. Do it properly, with a written agreement, a realistic hourly rate and records kept. Informal cash arrangements create real problems later, for tax, for the family member's own benefit entitlements, and if the council ever reviews your finances.
Bear in mind too that being paid can affect a family carer's Carer's Allowance if it pushes them over the earnings limit.
What is changing in social care funding
The £86,000 lifetime cap on personal care costs, legislated for in 2014 and repeatedly delayed, was scrapped in 2024. It will not now be introduced, and the capital thresholds remain where they have been since 2010.
The Casey Commission, the independent review of adult social care in England, is due to publish its first set of medium-term recommendations during 2026, with longer-term proposals to follow by 2028. Its remit includes the funding system and the groundwork for a National Care Service. Nothing has changed for people arranging care today, but reform is under active discussion and we will update this page as decisions are made.