Who Pays for a Care Home in England in 2026 to 2027: Savings Limits, Your House and NHS Funding
The £23,250 and £14,250 savings limits, what happens to your house, NHS continuing healthcare, the £267.68 nursing payment, Attendance Allowance and top-ups, with a savings test you can try with your own numbers. Rules and figures checked on GOV.UK and NHS pages on 12 November 2026.
Updated
With more than £23,250 in savings and property you pay the whole fee, between £14,250 and £23,250 the council helps, and below £14,250 only your income is counted.
Try the savings test with your own numbers
The limits are the ones in force for England from April 2026. This is an estimate to show how the council's test works, and its own financial assessment decides.
The order to ask in, from the first call to the contract
- Ask the council for a needs assessment.It is free and anyone can ask, whatever their savings. It decides whether a care home is the right kind of support. You can apply through GOV.UK.
- Ask whether the NHS should pay.NHS continuing healthcare is free health and social care arranged and funded solely by the NHS for some people with long-term complex health needs. The integrated care board must assess you if it seems you may need it, usually starting with a checklist. Ask for that before you agree to pay anything.
- Take the council's financial assessment.If the council agrees you need a care home, it works out what you can afford from your income and capital. The assessment is free, and the test above is how its capital rules work.
- Sort out the house.It is ignored for the first 12 weeks of a permanent stay, and for longer if a partner or certain relatives still live there. See the section below about selling.
- In a nursing home, claim the NHS nursing payment.If you are not eligible for continuing healthcare but are assessed as needing care from a registered nurse, the NHS pays a flat rate of £267.68 a week straight to the home. A smaller number of people who were on the old high band before 1 October 2007 keep a higher rate of £368.24.
- Claim the benefits you are owed.Attendance Allowance is £76.70 or £114.60 a week for people at State Pension age or over who need personal care, and it is not means tested. You cannot usually get it in a care home if your local authority pays, but you can still claim it if you pay all the costs yourself.
- Choose the home, then read the contract.When the council arranges your care you have a right to choose a suitable home that has a place, costs no more than your personal budget and is willing to contract on the council's terms. If you want a dearer one, someone else can agree to a top-up. Ask for the top-up terms in writing, including what happens if the fee rises.
Do you have to sell your house? What the rules say
When the house is left alone
The council must ignore a home still lived in, since before you moved, by your partner or former partner (unless estranged), a relative aged 60 or over or an incapacitated relative, or your child under 18. The guidance lists the relatives who count: parents, children, brothers and sisters, grandparents, grandchildren, uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces and in-laws.
When it counts
The NHS puts it plainly: you will not have to sell your home to pay for help in your own home, but you may have to sell it to pay for a care home unless your partner carries on living there. The first 12 weeks of a permanent stay are ignored, which gives you time to decide.
A deferred payment agreement
The council must offer one if you have care home needs, savings and other assets of £23,250 or less apart from the home, and a home that is not ignored, as long as you can give adequate security, normally a first legal charge on the property. The council pays the home and is repaid later, for example on a sale. It may charge interest up to a national maximum that changes on 1 January and 1 July, and after a death the debt falls due 90 days later.
Giving money away
If a council believes you have given away money or property to lower what you pay, the statutory guidance lets it charge you as if you still had it. If the asset went to someone else, it can seek to recover lost income from that person, up to what they gained.
The 2026 to 2027 figures at a glance
| Item | Amount | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Upper capital limit | £23,250 | Above this the council does not contribute to a care home. Unchanged for 2026 to 2027. |
| Lower capital limit | £14,250 | Below this your capital is ignored. Unchanged for 2026 to 2027. |
| Tariff income | £1 a week for every £250 | Charged on capital between the two limits, with any part of £250 counted as a whole one. |
| Personal expenses allowance | £31.80 a week | The minimum a council-supported care home resident keeps from their income, up from £30.65. |
| NHS-funded nursing care | £267.68 a week | Standard rate paid to a nursing home, set on 1 April 2026. |
| Attendance Allowance | £76.70 or £114.60 a week | The lower and higher rates, not means tested. |
| Home ignored | 12 weeks | At the start of a permanent stay, or when another protection unexpectedly ends. |
Where each rule and figure comes from
- GOV.UK, social care charging for care and support 2026 to 2027 circularThe two capital limits, the tariff of £1 for every £250 and the rise of the personal expenses allowance from £30.65 to £31.80. Published 17 February 2026, checked on 12 November 2026.
- GOV.UK, care and support statutory guidanceThe property disregards and the 12 weeks, rounding of the tariff, deferred payment agreements, notional capital, and choice of accommodation and top-ups. Last updated 30 October 2026, checked on 12 November 2026.
- NHS, NHS-funded nursing careWho is eligible, that it is paid directly to the home, and the standard and higher rates. Checked on 12 November 2026.
- NHS, NHS continuing healthcareWho can be eligible, the integrated care board's duty to assess and the checklist. Checked on 12 November 2026.
- NHS, paying for your own careThe statement about selling a home to pay for a care home. Checked on 12 November 2026.
- NHS, when the council might pay for your careThe free needs assessment and the free financial assessment. Checked on 12 November 2026.
- GOV.UK, Attendance AllowanceThe 2026 to 2027 rates and the rule for people in a care home, on its eligibility page. Checked on 12 November 2026.
Rules differ in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This page covers England and was written by the MyCareCheck editorial team on 12 November 2026. For advice on your own case, speak to your council's adult social care team or an independent care fees adviser. To see how a home is inspected, read our guide to CQC ratings.