The financial aspect of moving into a care home can seem complicated, but there are rules for working out how much you will pay. We outline the basic rules in this section. For more details, see our free information sheet no. 10 Paying for Your Care Home or call SeniorLine on 0808 800 6565 (or 0808 808 7575 in Northern Ireland).

Local authority funding
If you've been assessed as needing to move into a care home, your local council will work out how much you should pay towards the cost.

This depends on your income and savings. There is a fixed 'upper limit' to the amount of savings you can have and still get local authority funding. For example, if you have £25,000 savings, you will have to pay the full cost of your care.

There is also a 'lower limit' - any savings you have below this should not be counted. For example, if you have £8,000 in savings, this should be completely ignored when your local council is working out how much you should pay.

Savings limits

The savings limits usually go up every April. The rates here are for 2008/09. The limits in each country are:
Upper Limit	England and Northern Ireland	£22,250
	Scotland	£21,500
	Wales	£22,000
Lower Limit	England and Northern Ireland	£13,500
	Scotland	£13,000
	Wales	£19,000

More than the upper savings limit: If you have more than the upper limit in savings you will have to pay the full fees for the care home.

If you own your own home, its value will be disregarded for the first twelve weeks you are in care as a permanent resident. After that, the value of your home will usually be counted as 'capital'. This usually means that you will be expected to sell it to pay the fees.

But your house will not count as capital if it is occupied by:

• your husband, wife or civil partner (or unmarried partner) lives in the house; or
• a close relative over the age of 60 or under the age of 16, or a relative under the age of 60 who is 'incapacitated' needs to go on living there.; or
• your estranged or divorced partner and he or she is a lone parent with a dependent child; or
• a child under 16 you are laible to maintain and your house is the child's main home. The child must be either a relative of yours or a relative of a member of your family.

The local council may also ignore the value of the house if it is the permanent home of someone like a carer; they don't have to do this, but they can choose to.

If your house is counted as capital, but you don't wish to sell it, the local council can allow you to defer payment of your contribution. They will effectively be giving you an interest-free loan to be paid back when your property is eventually sold. You might find it more difficult to do this if you live in Northern Ireland, contact SeniorLine on 0808 808 7575.

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Less than the upper savings limit: If you have less than the upper limit in savings, or when your savings drop to this level, then your income and what savings you do have will be taken into account to work out how much you will pay towards the home fees.

• When deciding how much you have to pay towards the fees, the local authority must always leave you with some money to spend as you wish each week. This is called a 'personal expenses allowance'. In 2008-09 this is set at £21.15 (£21.38 in Wales); this rate goes up every April. Any income you have over this level will go to the local council to cover your care costs, up to the full amount of the fees.
• Your income is worked out by calculating what money you have coming in each week. This includes the income from your savings, any pension you receive (state, occupational or personal), and any income from benefits, such as Pension Credit.
• Any savings below the lower limit are ignored altogether, while savings between the lower and upper limits are converted into a weekly income using a simple formula.

The local council should tell you how it has worked out how much you will pay. Ask for this information in writing.

Make sure you understand exactly what is included in the fees and know what you will have to pay for yourself. For example, will you have to use your personal expenses allowance to pay for toiletries, phone calls, outings or clothing? Or are any of these things included in the fees?

Giving away property and savings
It is illegal to give property or savings to another person in order to qualify for financial help from your local council. This is called deprivation of assets. If the local council believes that you have deliberately given away assets so as to reduce or avoid fees for accommodation they may try to claim the fees back.

It is important to remember that if you give away your home, you may lose control over what happens to it. Although you may feel that you are protected if you give it to your children or other members of your family, you may have no legal rights if things change. As the majority of older people don't need to move into a care home, you may wish to hold on to your home and capital, and preserve your independence and control of your own money.

What happens next?
If your local council is responsible for funding all or part of your fees, they are responsible for paying the fees directly to the home. If you are contributing part of the fees, you will have to refund this amount to the local council.

If the local council decides you can pay the full fees, they will probably expect you to arrange your own care home place. If you're not able to manage this, or don't have someone who can help you, the local council must arrange a place for you.

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Nursing care contribution in England and Wales

If you are assessed as needing care from a registered nurse, the NHS should make a contribution towards your care home fees. Before you move into a care home, you should arrange an assessment. In England and Wales, the NHS is responsible for carrying out the assessment. In Northern Ireland the health and social care trust will carry out the assessment. If the NHS (or health and social services trust in Northern Ireland) thinks that you need nursing care, they should organise for you to be assessed by a registered nurse.

If the nurse agrees that you need nursing care, the NHS will pay an amount directly to your care home. If you pay your own care home fees this should mean you see a reduction in how much you have to pay.

The amount the NHS will pay towards your nursing care costs is different in each country. The figures below usually go up every April.

• In England, the rules about how much funding you will get towards your nursing care changed on 1 October 2007. As from 1 October 20078 the amount the NHS will contribute towards nursing care costs for care home residents in England will be a flat rate of £103.80 per week for those people newly assessed as needing care.
• In Wales, your local health board may contribute a flat rate of £177.66 towards your nursing care. However, each individual health board can decide how much it will contribute towards your nursing care. This amount may differ from the flat rate of £117.66 
• In Northern Ireland, the health and social care trust will pay up to £100 a week, depending on how much they already contribute towards your fees.

Transitional arrangements for existing claimants in England
There are transitional arrangements for existing claimants.

If you were assessed as needing a higher rate of nursing care you will continue to get the higher rate of £142.80 per week. Those getting the middle or lower rates of nursing care, will get£103.80 per week towards their care.

If you disagree with the decision made by the nurse, you can ask for a review.

If you're assessed as needing nursing care, it is worth checking whether you have been properly assessed for fully-funded NHS care first.

Help with nursing and care homes in Scotland

If you are paying all or part of your care home fees you may be able to get help with the costs of nursing and personal care from your local council.

• If your local council assesses you as needing nursing care they will pay £67 a week towards your fees.
• If you are aged 65 and over and they agree that you also need personal care, they will pay an extra £149 a week towards your care.
• If you are aged 65 and over and it agrees that you need personal care and nursing care, it will pay £216 a week towards your care.

Your local council will make these payments directly to your care home. You should then see a reduction in the fees you have to pay.

Fully funded NHS care

If your needs are considered to be primarily complex, healthcare needs, you may get completely free care from the NHS. This is known as continuing NHS health care. You should be assessed for continuing NHS health care before you move into a care home that provides nursing care, or when you are being discharged from hospital. You can also ask for an assessment if you live in a care home that doesn't provide nursing care.

Unfortunately it can be very difficult to qualify for fully-funded NHS care. Each local primary care trust (or health board in Scotland and Wales), has its own set of rules - known as eligibility criteria - for deciding who gets this type of care.

To find out whether you are eligible for continuing NHS care, in England, you need to contact your local primary care trust for an assessment. In England, the primary care trust will use a framework called The National Framework for Continuing Healthcare and NHS-Funded Nursing Care which was introduced on 1 October 2007. The framework looks at four areas when making a decision about whether you are entitled to NHS care: the nature of your needs, (including the type of interventions or help you require); intensity (the extent and severity of your needs, including the need for constant care); complexity (how your needs arise, are they stable or is monitoring required); and predictability (the extent to which your needs change and the level of risk if adequate and timely care is not provided).

Scotland and Wales have their own set of eligibility criteria for deciding who gets this type of care. In Wales this will be dealt with by your local health board. In Scotland, this could be dealt with by a number of health and social care professionals: for example, your doctor or social worker.

You cannot get fully-funded NHS care if you live in Northern Ireland.

If you are told you do not meet the criteria for continuing NHS health care, and you are unhappy with this decision, you can use their complaints procedure. It will help you to get advice first, for example from your local Citizens Advice Bureau.

If you do receive free continuing NHS health care, the choice about where the care is provided is up to the NHS, though they do have to take your views into account.

We give more information about local council and NHS funding rules in our information sheet no. 10 Paying for Your Care Home.