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Will the council pay for care? Check in 60 seconds
The rules on care funding are confusing by design. Enter your savings and — if you’re moving into a care home — your property value, and we’ll show, in plain English, whether the council should help and what else you might be able to claim.
Care funding & means-test calculator
Enter a few figures to see where you’re likely to stand in the care means test — whether you’d fund your own care, get help from the council, and which extra support you might be able to claim. It’s a plain-English guide, not a benefits decision, and nothing you type is saved or sent anywhere.
Likely to fund your own care
Your assessed capital of £230,000 is above the upper limit of £23,250 in England, so you’d normally be expected to pay the full cost of care until your capital falls to that level.
The means test explained · What happens when savings run out · Giving money away: deprivation of assets
Likely eligible for Attendance Allowance
Attendance Allowance is not means-tested — your savings don’t matter. At State Pension age and needing regular help, you can usually claim about £77–£115/week (lower or higher rate). Confirm the current rate at gov.uk/attendance-allowance.
Get free, independent advice
MoneyHelper (from the government-backed Money and Pensions Service) has free guides to paying for care, and the Age UK Advice Line gives free, confidential advice.
This is general information, not financial, benefits or legal advice, and not a decision by any council or the NHS. It applies published England thresholds (2026/27) to the figures you entered; your actual assessment depends on your full circumstances, income and the rules that apply on the day. Always ask your local council for a financial assessment, and consider free advice from Bart or a specialist such as Age UK or Citizens Advice.
What your council pays care homes
Choose your council for its care home rates and the means test with its own figures, in England.
- Barking and Dagenham
- Barnet
- Barnsley
- Bath and North East Somerset
- Bedford
- Bexley
- Birmingham
- Blackburn with Darwen
- Blackpool
- Bolton
- Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole
- Bracknell Forest
- Bradford
- Brent
- Brighton and Hove
- Bristol
- Bromley
- Buckinghamshire
- Bury
- Calderdale
- Cambridgeshire
- Camden
- Central Bedfordshire
- Cheshire East
- Cheshire West and Chester
- City of London
- Cornwall
- County Durham
- Coventry
- Croydon
- Cumberland
- Darlington
- Derby
- Derbyshire
- Devon
- Doncaster
- Dorset
- Dudley
- Ealing
- East Riding of Yorkshire
- East Sussex
- Enfield
- Essex
- Gateshead
- Gloucestershire
- Greenwich
- Hackney
- Halton
- Hammersmith and Fulham
- Hampshire
- Haringey
- Harrow
- Hartlepool
- Havering
- Herefordshire
- Hertfordshire
- Hillingdon
- Hounslow
- Isle of Wight
- Islington
- Kensington and Chelsea
- Kent
- Kingston upon Hull
- Kingston upon Thames
- Kirklees
- Knowsley
- Lambeth
- Lancashire
- Leeds
- Leicester
- Leicestershire
- Lewisham
- Lincolnshire
- Liverpool
- Luton
- Manchester
- Medway
- Merton
- Middlesbrough
- Milton Keynes
- Newcastle upon Tyne
- Newham
- Norfolk
- North East Lincolnshire
- North Lincolnshire
- North Northamptonshire
- North Somerset
- North Tyneside
- North Yorkshire
- Northumberland
- Nottingham
- Nottinghamshire
- Oldham
- Oxfordshire
- Peterborough
- Plymouth
- Portsmouth
- Reading
- Redbridge
- Redcar and Cleveland
- Richmond upon Thames
- Rochdale
- Rotherham
- Rutland
- Salford
- Sandwell
- Sefton
- Sheffield
- Shropshire
- Slough
- Solihull
- Somerset
- South Gloucestershire
- South Tyneside
- Southampton
- Southend-on-Sea
- Southwark
- St. Helens
- Staffordshire
- Stockport
- Stockton-on-Tees
- Stoke-on-Trent
- Suffolk
- Sunderland
- Surrey
- Sutton
- Swindon
- Tameside
- Telford and Wrekin
- Thurrock
- Torbay
- Tower Hamlets
- Trafford
- Wakefield
- Walsall
- Waltham Forest
- Wandsworth
- Warrington
- Warwickshire
- West Berkshire
- West Northamptonshire
- West Sussex
- Westminster
- Westmorland and Furness
- Wigan
- Wiltshire
- Windsor and Maidenhead
- Wirral
- Wokingham
- Wolverhampton
- Worcestershire
- York
What it checks
Three things every family should know
The means test
In England, capital above £23,250 means you fund your own care; below £14,250 your savings are ignored. In between, you contribute a “tariff income”.
Your home isn’t always counted
For care at home it’s never counted. For a care home it’s disregarded if a partner or qualifying relative still lives there — and for the first 12 weeks either way.
Extra help isn’t means-tested
Attendance Allowance and NHS Continuing Healthcare don’t look at your savings at all. Many families miss out simply because no one told them to ask.
More in our paying for care guides. Want to talk it through? Ask Bart, our AI concierge.
Will the council pay? Common questions
Will the council pay for my parent’s care home?
In England, the council will usually help if your parent’s savings and other capital, including their home unless it is disregarded, are below £23,250 (2026/27). Above that, they normally pay the full cost themselves. The council first assesses their care needs, then their finances.
How much will my parent still have to pay?
Even when the council helps, most of your parent’s income, such as their pensions, goes towards the fees. Savings below £14,250 aren’t counted. Between £14,250 and £23,250, they pay £1 a week for every £250.
Is the family home counted?
Not if a husband, wife, partner or certain other relatives still live there. Otherwise it is counted for a permanent move into a care home, but not for the first 12 weeks. It is never counted for care at home.
What happens when savings run out?
When a self-funder’s capital is falling towards £23,250, contact the council before it gets there, so the assessment is done in time. The council may then help, but if the home costs more than the council will pay, someone may be asked to pay a top-up.
Can my parent give money away so the council pays?
If money or property is given away to avoid care charges, the council can treat it as if your parent still has it. This is called deprivation of assets. Take independent advice first.
Is it different in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland?
Yes. In Scotland the limits are £36,750 and £22,750, and personal care is free for those assessed as needing it. Wales has a single limit of £50,000. Northern Ireland uses the same limits as England.