What Care Costs

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England · 2026/27 rules

Will the council pay — and if not, how much will you?

Six questions. No sign-up, no email, nothing sent anywhere. The answer uses the same thresholds a council financial assessment uses, so it should be close to what you are told officially.

Bank accounts, ISAs, premium bonds, shares. Not the value of a home — that comes next.

£

A property is ignored entirely if a husband, wife, partner, or a relative aged 60+ or disabled carries on living there.

Its value only starts to count after the first 12 weeks, and a deferred payment agreement can delay a sale.

£

State Pension, private and workplace pensions, Pension Credit. Do not include Attendance Allowance if the council is funding the place.

£a week

Ask the home directly. If you do not know yet, leave it as it is — the council part of the answer will still be right.

£a week

If a registered nurse is needed, the NHS pays a fixed weekly amount straight to the home on top of everything else.

How this is worked out

Nothing here is our invention. Every threshold below comes from the rules councils in England have to apply this year.

Upper capital limit
£23,250
Lower capital limit
£14,250
Tariff income between the two
£1 a week per £250
Personal expenses allowance
£31.80 a week
NHS-funded nursing care
£267.68 a week
Property disregard on moving in
12 weeks

Capital limits and the personal expenses allowance: GOV.UK charging circular 2026/27 — the limits are frozen for a sixteenth year. NHS-funded nursing care rate announced by the government in March 2026, effective 1 April 2026.

What this cannot tell you

This is an estimate, not a financial assessment. Only the council can carry one out, and it can reach a different figure — for instance if it decides capital was given away to avoid fees, if a disability benefit changes the picture, or if the home you want costs more than the council will pay and a top-up is needed from someone other than the resident.

Two things worth knowing that no calculator captures. NHS Continuing Healthcare pays the entire fee, whatever your savings, when needs are primarily health-related rather than social — it is refused far more often than it is granted, and it is worth asking for an assessment anyway. And a deferred payment agreement lets the council cover fees against the value of a property, so that a house does not have to be sold in a hurry at a bad price.

Where to get advice you can rely on

We publish prices and register data. We are not an advice service, and for the decisions that follow these are the sources worth your time — all free, none of them selling you anything.

Age UK — Paying for a care home The clearest free explanation of the means test, the 12-week property disregard and deferred payment agreements. Their factsheet 10 goes further than almost anything else published. GOV.UK — charging circular, 2026/27 The primary source for this year’s figures: capital limits held again at £23,250 and £14,250, and the personal expenses allowance uprated by 3.8%. NHS — paying for your own care Written for people who will not qualify for council help: whether a home has to be sold, what equity release really involves, and which benefits are not means-tested. MoneyHelper — ways to pay care home fees Government-backed and impartial. Also explains what a specialist care fees adviser does and when paying for one is worth it. Care Act 2014 — statutory guidance What councils are actually obliged to do. Annex A covers choice of accommodation and top-up payments, the part families are most often talked past. Care Quality Commission The regulator itself. Every rating here comes from its public register, and the full inspection report is always worth reading rather than the headline word alone.

Now find out what homes near you actually charge

The number this calculator cannot fill in is what a particular home charges, because almost none of them publish it. We list every care home on the CQC register, with the council rate for the area where we have it.

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