When does the council pay for a care home?

In England, once your capital is £23,250 or less. Above that you pay the full fee. Between £14,250 and £23,250 you pay what you can from income plus £1 a week for every £250 of capital above £14,250; below £14,250 only your income counts. You always keep at least £31.80 a week for personal expenses (2026 to 2027).

Will I have to sell my house to pay for care?

Not if a partner, or a relative aged 60 or over or disabled, still lives there: the home is then ignored. Otherwise it counts as capital after the first 12 weeks of a permanent stay, but a deferred payment agreement lets the council pay and recover the cost from the home later, so it need not be sold in your lifetime.

How long would my savings last in a care home?

Until your capital falls to £23,250, paying the fee less your income each week. With £60,000 of savings, £300 a week of income and a £1,096 weekly fee, that is about 47 weeks; if a £300,000 home also counts, about 8 years.

Care home means test calculator: when the council pays

Whether the council helps with a care home in England, whether your home counts, how long your savings pay the fees first, and what you pay each week once they reach the limits. Your figures never leave your browser.

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Worked example

Computed when this page was built by the same engine that runs the calculator above, so the figures below and the live tool can never disagree. Change any input above to see your own.

Inputs
Savings and investments	£60,000
Home	£300,000 (no partner living there)
Income a week	£300
Care home fee a week	£1,096

Results
Capital counted	£360,000
Paying the full fee for	8.2 years (424 weeks)
Spent on fees beyond income first	£337,504
Then a week: you / the council	£304.20 / £791.80
Below £14,250: you / the council	£268.20 / £827.80

The next question

What would care cost over several years? →Care costs calculator

Or answer it with everything else: the full Hundred Summers plan connects your pay, pensions, savings, property, tax and spending year by year, and stress-tests them across 500 simulated market histories.

Read the guides

Benefits and allowances people miss: what to check, and where →
The entitlements most often left unclaimed in the UK (Pension Credit, Attendance Allowance, Carer's Allowance, Marriage Allowance, Council Tax Reduction and the help each one unlocks) with 2026/27 rates from gov.uk and the free, independent calculators to check your own. A signpost, not a checker. Education, not advice.
Care home fees: the numbers nobody explains until it's urgent →
What care actually costs, the £23,250 means-test line and when the home counts, why councils pay less than you would, and how to stress-test a plan against a late-life care phase.

The capital limits

Above £23,250 of capital you pay the whole fee. Between the limits the council assesses a contribution: your income, less a £31.80 weekly personal expenses allowance, plus “tariff income” of £1 a week for every £250 above £14,250. Below £14,250 only income counts. The limits have been frozen since 2010; the cap on lifetime care costs planned for 2025 was cancelled.

The home

The home is ignored while a partner, or a relative aged 60 or over or incapacitated, still lives there, and for the first 12 weeks of a permanent stay. After that it counts, which for most people means paying from it for years; a deferred payment agreement lets the council pay and recover the cost when the home is sold, after death if need be. Pensions not yet drawn are not counted as capital, though the council can count the income they could pay you. The care costs calculator prices a stay, and the equity release and downsizing calculators the other ways of using a home.

Education, not advice. England only: Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland set their own limits, and Scotland pays towards personal care. Councils pay their own rate for a home, and giving assets away to qualify can be treated as deliberate deprivation. For a personal recommendation speak to an FCA-regulated adviser accredited by the Society of Later Life Advisers; free guidance is available from Age UK and MoneyHelper.

Sources

Department of Health and Social Care, Social care charging for care and support 2026 to 2027: local authority circular (capital limits and personal expenses allowance).
Department of Health and Social Care, Care and support statutory guidance (the property disregards and deferred payment agreements).