Free tool · England & Wales
What could care home fees really cost?
Typical 2026 self-funder fees by region and care type, what they add up to over the years — and an honest explanation of who pays, including what planning genuinely can and can't do. No sign-up, no obligation.
Your situation
Where would the care be?
What type of care?
Nursing homes have a qualified nurse on duty and cost more than residential care.
For how long?
Nobody knows in advance — comparing a few durations shows how quickly the total builds.
What it could cost
Pick a region to see typical 2026 self-funder fees for your situation — weekly, and what they add up to over time.
Who pays — the means test, in plain English
England: the £23,250 threshold
Above £23,250 in assets you generally self-fund in full. Between £14,250 and £23,250 you contribute on a sliding scale; below £14,250 only your income counts. Both thresholds are reviewed yearly by government.Wales: a single £50,000 limit
Wales uses one capital limit of £50,000 — above it you generally pay care home fees in full, below it the local authority contributes. The limit is reviewed yearly by government, and your home’s value is ignored for the first 12 weeks of permanent care.The honest bit: you can't just give it all away
Transfers made to dodge care fees — gifting the house, moving savings into trust — can be looked through under deliberate deprivation rules, with no time limit. If a local authority decides that avoiding care costs was a significant motive, it can assess you as if you still owned the asset. Planning has honest limits, and anyone promising otherwise is overselling.Add detail: funding routes worth checking+
NHS Continuing Healthcare — check this before anything else
Where someone’s needs are primarily health-based rather than social, NHS Continuing Healthcare can cover the full cost of care — free, and not means-tested. The assessment bar is high and many people are turned down, but it costs nothing to ask for an assessment, so it should always be the first check.Attendance Allowance
A non-means-tested benefit for people over State Pension age who need help with personal care. Savings and home ownership don’t count against it, and it isn’t taxed — many families simply never claim it.What a property protection trust can — and can't — do
A property protection trust in a will can legitimately ring-fence the first-to-die’s share of the home for the children, because that share never belonged to the survivor. It cannot shelter the survivor’s own assets, and it is not a way to avoid care fees. See how it compares with other trusts in our trust comparison tool.Illustrative 2026 estimates, not advice and not a quote — figures are rounded from published self-funder averages (carehome.co.uk and Lottie) and actual fees vary by home and area. Means-test thresholds are reviewed yearly by government. No trust or gift is a way to simply avoid care fees. Wills, LPAs and trusts are not regulated by the FCA.
The self-funding cliff, explained
Most families meet care fees for the first time in a crisis, and the numbers come as a shock. Published 2026 averages for self-funders (carehome.co.uk and Lottie) put residential care at roughly £1,300 a week and nursing care at roughly £1,500 a week — more in London and the South East, somewhat less in the North and in Wales. Three years of nursing care can therefore run well past £200,000. These are estimates, and costs vary by home and area, but the order of magnitude is the point: for self-funders, care is usually the largest later-life expense of all.
Who pays is decided by a means test. In England, assets above £23,250 generally mean you fund care yourself in full; between £14,250 and £23,250 you contribute on a sliding scale; below £14,250 only income counts. Wales applies a single £50,000 capital limit. The family home is usually counted unless a spouse, partner or certain others still live there. All of these thresholds are reviewed yearly by government — the figures above are the position for 2026/27, not a permanent rule.
And the honest part: planning has real limits here. Deliberate deprivation rules let a local authority look through gifts and trusts made to dodge care fees, with no time limit. What good planning can legitimately do is narrower but still valuable — a property protection trust in a will can ring-fence the first-to-die’s share of the home, NHS Continuing Healthcare is always worth checking where needs are health-based, and benefits such as Attendance Allowance go unclaimed surprisingly often. Anyone selling certainty beyond that is selling something else.
- Can a trust protect your home from care home fees?
- Setting up an LPA for an elderly parent — what families get wrong
- Compare UK trust types side by side
For how we approach trusts — and when we advise against them — see our trusts service.
Care home costs: common questions
How much does a care home cost per week in the UK?+
Published 2026 averages for people paying their own way put residential care at roughly £1,300 a week and nursing care at roughly £1,500–£1,535 a week (carehome.co.uk and Lottie). London and the South East run well above that — nursing care in London averages around £1,750–£2,000 a week — while the North of England and Wales sit below the national figure. Over a year that is broadly £67,000–£80,000, which is why care is the largest later-life expense most self-funding families ever face. These are estimates: actual fees vary widely by home and area.
Who pays for care home fees — how does the means test work?+
If you need local-authority support in England, your finances are assessed. Above £23,250 in assets you generally pay the full fee yourself; between £14,250 and £23,250 you contribute on a sliding scale from capital as well as income; below £14,250 only your income counts. Wales uses a single capital limit of £50,000. Your home is usually counted unless a spouse, partner or certain other people still live in it. All of these thresholds are reviewed yearly by government.
What is the £23,250 threshold?+
It is England's upper capital limit: while your assets — savings, investments and usually your share of the home, unless someone qualifying still lives there — exceed £23,250, you are normally a self-funder paying the full cost of your care. The lower limit is £14,250, below which capital is ignored entirely. Both figures are reviewed yearly by government; they have in fact been held at the same level for many years, which steadily pulls more people into self-funding as house prices and savings rise.
Can a trust protect my home from care fees?+
Only in a limited, honest sense — a trust is not a loophole. If you give your home away or put it in trust to escape care costs, deliberate deprivation rules let the local authority treat you as still owning it, with no time limit; timing and intent matter. What a property protection trust in a will can legitimately do is ring-fence the first-to-die's share of the home for the children, because that share never belonged to the survivor. The survivor's own assets remain fully assessable, and anyone promising more than that is overselling.
What is NHS Continuing Healthcare?+
Free NHS funding that covers the full cost of care — including care home fees — where someone's needs are primarily health-based rather than social. It is not means-tested, so your savings and home are irrelevant if you qualify. The assessment bar is high and many applications are refused, but it costs nothing to request an assessment, which is why it is worth checking before any conversation about paying for care. Separately, people in nursing homes who don't qualify can still receive a weekly NHS-funded nursing care payment towards the nursing element of their fees.
Does selling the house count in the means test?+
The value of your home is usually included in the means test once you move into permanent care — whether or not you have sold it — unless a spouse, partner or certain other qualifying people still live there. There is a 12-week property disregard at the start of permanent care (in both England and Wales), and councils offer deferred payment agreements so fees can be secured against the property rather than forcing an immediate sale. Selling simply turns the same value into cash, which is assessed in exactly the same way.
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