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

Long-term care funding rests on one test, plus a set of exceptions to it. The test is the local-authority means assessment: it weighs 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. That is where the largest and most often missed sums sit. The four nations apply materially different numbers to both.

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

Several funding routes ignore capital and income entirely. They are where the analysis most often goes wrong:

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 (4.65% in England for the second 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