Paying for care: the means test, and the routes that are not means-tested

Long-term care funding in the UK turns on one test and a handful of exceptions to it. The test is the local-authority means assessment: it looks at a person’s capital and income and decides whether they self-fund, pay a tapered contribution, or are supported. The exceptions are the routes that sit outside the means test — NHS Continuing Healthcare, funded nursing care, Scotland’s free personal care, s.117 aftercare — and they are where the largest and most frequently-missed sums are. This guide sets out both, and the four nations apply materially different numbers to each.

The means test: capital first

The means test starts with capital — savings, investments, and (for a care-home stay) often the home. Each nation sets an upper capital limit above which a person pays the full fee, and most set a lowerlimit below which capital is ignored and only income is assessed. Between the two, a notional “tariff income” is added to assessed income.

England and Northern Ireland share the same £23,250 / £14,250 figures (frozen for several years now). Scotland’s limits are higher — £36,750 and £22,750 from 6 April 2026. Wales is structurally different: a single £50,000 limit for residential care with no tariff band, so a resident is either a self-funder above it or assisted at or below it. The line is exact: in England, capital of £23,250.01 self-funds, while £23,250 sits in the tariff band.

Then tariff income

In the nations with a tariff band, capital between the lower and upper limit is converted to income at £1 per week for every £250, or part of £250. It is a notional figure — it does not assume the capital earns anything — and it is added to actual income for the contribution calculation.

Each £250 (or part) is one £1 step, rounded up — so £14,250.01 produces a single £1 step, and capital at the £23,250 upper limit produces 36 steps (£36/week). The resident also keeps a Personal Expenses Allowance the charge cannot touch — £31.80/week in England for 2026/27 (£37.65 in Scotland, £34.10 in Northern Ireland). Wales protects a Minimum Income Amount instead (£46.35/week residential).

The routes that are not means-tested

This is the part that changes outcomes most. Several funding routes ignore capital and income entirely:

NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) funds the whole care package — accommodation included — where a person’s primary need is a health need. It is assessed against a national framework, never against means: a £500,000 self-funder with a CHC-eligible need pays nothing. NHS-funded nursing care pays a flat weekly contribution to the nursing element in a care home (England £267.68/week from 1 April 2026), and a self-funder still receives it. In Scotland, free personal care (£260.30/week) and free nursing care (£117.10/week) are paid at any age. s.117 aftercare under the Mental Health Act 1983 is free for care that meets a need arising from a detained admission.

Two non-means-tested benefits are commonly left unclaimed: Attendance Allowance (the higher rate is £114.60/week from April 2026, for people over State Pension age) and, in Scotland, Pension Age Disability Payment.

The home

For care at home, the main residence is never counted. For a permanent care-home stay it is counted unless a disregard applies — most importantly a qualifying occupant (a spouse, partner or certain relatives still living there), which disregards it for as long as they remain, and the 12-week disregard at the start of a permanent stay. Where the home is counted, a Deferred Payment Agreement can let the fees accrue against it rather than forcing a sale, at a capped interest rate (4.75% in England for the first half of 2026).

Work a specific situation on the free long-term care entitlement checker — it applies the right nation’s rules, states the funding position, and flags the non-means-tested routes (CHC, funded nursing care, Attendance Allowance, s.117) so they can be checked. It is a position-finder, not advice; for advice, refer to a SOLLA-accredited later-life adviser.

Care Act 2014 · Care and Support (Charging and Assessment of Resources) Regulations 2014 · National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare · engine reading ADR-039