Care Fees Planning
Know the rules before you need them. What a council can count, what it cannot, and what it can challenge.
What care actually costs
Average weekly fees paid by self-funders across the UK:
| Residential care | £1,298 a week |
|---|---|
| Residential dementia care | £1,343 a week |
| Nursing care | £1,535 a week |
| Nursing dementia care | £1,564 a week |
Nursing care at these rates is around £80,000 a year. Two years is roughly £160,000, which for most families is a meaningful part of what they intended to pass on.
Who pays, and from what
Care is means tested, and the limits are set separately in England and in Wales. We advise clients in both.
England. Below £14,250 the local authority funds your care. Between £14,250 and £23,250 you contribute £1 a week for every £250 of capital in that band, plus what you can afford from income. Above £23,250 you pay the full cost. Both limits have been frozen since 2010, and you are left with a Personal Expenses Allowance of £31.80 a week.
Wales. A single limit of £50,000 for residential care, the most generous in the UK, and you must be left with at least £46.35 a week. Care at home is capped at £100 a week whatever your care costs, with a £24,000 capital limit excluding the value of your home.
Local authorities may consider savings, investments, certain pension income and, in some circumstances, property including your home. The home is usually included unless a spouse, civil partner or dependent relative remains living there, or a temporary 12-week disregard applies.
What we will and will not tell you
There is a great deal of misleading information in this market, particularly around “asset protection” or lifetime trusts sold as a way to put property beyond the reach of a local authority. We do not market trusts on that basis.
A local authority asks two questions about a disposal of capital: did you have a reasonable expectation of needing care and support at the time of the transfer, and did you have a reasonable expectation of needing to contribute to its cost? If the answer to both is yes, it can decide that avoiding the charge was a significant purpose of the transfer.
So if avoiding care charges is the principal reason you are considering something, our advice is that it will not work, and we will tell you so. What we can do is set out the rules that actually apply to you, in writing, while there is still time to make decisions calmly rather than in a hurry.
Read more on care home fees and the means test.
Start with a free review
A free review is the point at which we look at your own circumstances and tell you where you actually stand. There is no charge and no obligation, and we confirm a fixed fee in writing before any work starts.